MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 


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Mesmerism  and 
Christian  Science 


A  SHORT  HISTORY 
OF  MENTAL  HEALING 


By 

FRANK  PODMORE 

Author  of  "  Modern  Spiritualism 


^"^     9f  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

PHILADELPHIA 
GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


m 


-P6 


GENERAL 


\ 


PREFACE 

THE  nth  of  August  should  be  observed  as  a  day  of 
humiliation  by  every  learned  Society  in  the  civilised 
world,  for  on  that  date  in  1784  a  Commission,  con- 
sisting of  the  most  distinguished  representatives  of  Science  in 
the  most  enlightened  capital  in  Europe,  pronounced  the  rejec- 
tion of  a  pregnant  scientific  discovery — a  discovery  possibly 
rivalling  in  permanent  significance  all  the  contributions  to  the 
physical  Sciences  made  by  the  two  most  famous  members  of 
the  Commission — Lavoisier  and  Benjamin  Franklin.  Not 
that  the  report  on  Animal  Magnetism  presented  by  Bailly 
and  his  colleagues  did  serious  injustice  to  Mesmer  himself,  or 
to  his  vaunted  science.  The  magnetic  fluid  was  a  chimaera, 
and  Mesmer,  it  may  be  admitted,  was  perhaps  three  parts  a 
charlatan.  He  had  no  pretensions  to  be  a  thinker :  he  stole 
his  philosophy  ready-made  from  a  few  belated  alchemists  ; 
and  his  entire  system  of  healing  was  based  on  a  delusion. 
His  extraordinary  success  was  due  to  the  lucky  accident  of 
the  times. 

Mesmer's  first  claim  to  our  remembrance  lies  in  this — that 
he  wrested  the  privilege  of  healing  from  the  Churches,  and 
gave  it  to  mankind  as  a  universal  possession.  In  rejecting 
the  gift  for  themselves  and  their  successors  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  Bailly  and  his  colleagues  rejected  more 
than  they  knew.  Now,  more  than  a  hundred  years  later, 
physicians  and  laymen  alike  are  coming  to  realise  the 
benefits    of   healing    by   Suggestion.     That   those   benefits 


190848 


viii  MESMERISM  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 
should,  through  carelessness  and  prejudice.  h-'J^^" 
withheld  from  us.  ,nortaUl,us  .gru  for  so  '°"B  -■  "° 
doubt,  a  serious  loss.  But  the  real  s.gn.ficance  of  the  fact 
brought  to  light  by  Mesmer  lies  deeper.  The  cr,s,s.  the 
n,:gnetic  thriUs.  the  cures  themselves,  are  only  as  nuggeU 
tha?  lie  on   the  surface:   the  mother-lode  has  yet  to  b< 

^Thfaim  of  the  present  work  is  "riefly  to  describe  th, 
various   phases  of  the  movement  initiated  by  Mesmer,  an. 
to  trace  the  successive  attempts  made  by  those  who  cam 
after  him  to  get  below  the  surface  to  the  underlymg  reahtj 
The  unTversal   indifferent  fluid  of  the  famous  Propos.fon 
was  discredited  in  the  eyes  of  the  scientific  wor  d  by  Ba.lly 
eport     By  Mesmer's  followers,  even  in  his  hfet.me   .t  w 
eThed   and   found   wanting.      It    would   not  explam  t 
lets     For  gradually,  as  the  pioneers  pushed  the.r  explo 
"Ifurther  into  the  new  territory  thrown  open  to  them 
he  Viennese  doctor,  the  landmarks  of  terrestr.a    geograpl 
began  to  fail  them.    They  found,  or  seemed  to  themse  ve 
find  that  the  facts  with  which  they  had  to  deal  belonged  le 
to  the  body  than  to  the  soul  o.p.ycke-^o  use  that  term  w,  tho 
pr    udice.'n  its  conventional  meaning.     When  th,s    .scov 
Ls  once  made.  Animal  Magnetisrn  became  the  ert,  e  mat  . 
from  which  sprang  all  the    shadowy  brood  of  latter  d 
mysticisms-Spiritualism.  Theosophy.   the    New    Thoug 
rulmnatin.  in  the  Christian  Science  of  Mrs.  Mary  Bal 
E  r  in  :.hich  we  find  that  the  wheel  has  at  .ast  tur.d 
full  c  rcle,  and  the  practice  of  healing  has  once  agam  beco 
nseparably   connected   with  the  pracfce  of  rehg.on^     . 
art  which   Mesmer  taught   his  followers  to  look  upon 
Iholly   materia.-a   question   ^i^P'y   of -d.nt  flu,  s 
the  "coction"  of  humours-is  explamed  by  the  Chr.s 
Sdentists  as  a  wholly  spiritual   process,  in  wh.ch  ma^ 
rounts  for  less  than  nothing. 

ThI  Spiritualists  may  claim  the  doubtful  honour  of  b. 


PREFACE  ix 

the  first  in  the  field :  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  repre- 
sents the  last  word  of  mysticism.  But  these  are  not  the  only- 
explorers  of  the  wide  province.  Modern  psychology  is  being 
forced  more  and  more  to  take  into  account  the  manifestations 
of  the  subconscious  life;  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  is 
exhaustively  mapping  out  one  corner  of  the  field  ;  and  the 
student  of  religious  phenomena  finds  here  data  essential 
to  the  solution  of  his  special  problems. 

To  all  these  the  present  work  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  found 
useful  as  offering  a  brief  account  of  the  first  steps  taken  in 
an  exploration  which  will,  it  may  be  anticipated,  ultimately 
furnish  the  answer  to  some  momentous  questions. 

I  have  to  thank  Mr.  A.  G.  Tolputt,  M.R.C.S.,  L.R.C.P.,  for 
his  kindness  in  reading  the  earlier  chapters  of  the  book  in  the 
typescript,  and  in  giving  me  the  advantage  of  his  medical 
knowledge. 

March,  1909.  F.  P. 


CONTENTS 

PREFACE    .... 


CHAPTER  I.— HEALING   BY   FLUID  .  .  .  .         i 

Early  life  of  Mesmer— He  comes  to  Paris  at  the  psychological 
moment:  his  acquaintance  with  Deslon :  his  immediate 
success— Description  of  the  Baquet  and  the  Magnetic  treat- 
ment generally— Accounts  of  typical  cures  extracted  from 
a  contemporary  work,  the  Supplement  aux  Deux  Rapports— 
Discussion  of  the  observed  symptoms,  and  of  the  nature 
and  significance  of  the  cures 

CHAPTER    II.-THE   MAGNETIC  SYSTEM  .  .  .  .26 

The  Faith-healers— Mesmer's  debt  to  Gassner— Sympathetic 
or  Magnetic  medicine— Sir  Kenelm  Digby's  Weapon  Salve, 
and  his  explanation  of  its  virtues— Paracelsus  on  Mummy  and 
the  Magnes  Microcosmi  —  Yan  Helmont's  account  of  the 
Sympathetic  system:  further  developed  by  Fludd  and 
Maxwell— Mesmer's  propositions  :  his  doctrine  wholly  de- 
rived from  his  predecessors,  but  with  a  difference 

CHAPTER   III.— THE   FIRST   FRENCH    COMMISSION      .  .      41 

Mesmer's  relations  with  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  with 
the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine— Three  doctors  of  the  Faculty 
inquire  into  Mesmer's  treatment— Deslon's  application  to  the 
Faculty  on  Mesmer's  behalf— De  Vauzesmes'  speech— The 
case  of  M.  Busson— Rejection  of  Mesmer's  proposals,  and 
ultimate  expulsion  of  Deslon  from  the  Faculty— Mesmer 
refuses  a  substantial  pension  from  the  Government— His 
pupils  form  a  Society  of  Harmony— Berthollet's  letter- Two 
Commissions  of  Inquiry  appointed  by  Government— Their 
Reports— What  they  saw  and  what  they  did  not  see— Report 
of  De  Jussieu 


xii      MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


PAGE 

CHAPTER   IV.— THE   DISCOVERY   OF   SOMNAMBULISM  .       63 

Shortcomings  of  Bailly's  Report — A  thing  which  does  not 
exist  may  yet  be  useful — Replies  :  Doiites  dun  Provincial — 
The  case  of  Court  de  Gebelin — Reports  from  provincial 
doctors  —  The  Marquis  du  Puysegur  —  His  discovery  of 
Somnambulism — Somnambulic  diagnosis  and  "predictions" 
— The  theory  of  a  vital  fluid — The  tree  at  Busancy — Mesmcr's 
real  secret — Believe  and  Will — Observations  of  Tardy  de 
Montravel,  Petetin,  Deleuze — Influence  of  the  magnetic 
fluid  in  stimulating  the  intellectual  functions 

CHAPTER  v.— HEALING   BY   SUGGESTION  .  .  .87 

Progress  of  Animal  Magnetism  after  the  Restoration  in  France 
— Demonstrations  of  anaesthesia  and  clairvoyance — Views  of 
Bertrand  :  he  attributes  many  of  the  phenomena  to  suggestion 
— His  description  of  the  trance  and  its  characteristics — His 
explanation  of  "prediction" — He  is  disposed  to  believe  in 
clairvoyance  and  thought-transference 

CHAPTER  VI.— LATER   FRENCH   COMMISSIONS.  .  .     103 

Discussion  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine  in  1825 — A  committee 
of  investigation  appointed — Their  subjects  :  Celine,  Mdlle. 
Samson,  Paul  Villagrdiid — Their  Report  endorses  prevision 
and  clairvoyance — Anaesthesia  in  trance — The  case  of  Madame 
Pkintin,  and  of  Oudet's  patient :  reception  by  the  Academy  of 
reports  on  these  two  cases — The  Academy  in  1837  appoints 
another  Commission  to  investigate  the  subject — Their  Report  ' 

unfavourable — Burdin's  prize  for  clairvoyance — Experiments 
with  Mdlle.  Pigeaire,  Teste's  subject,  Mdlle.  Prudence,  and 
others — The  prize  not  awarded 

CHAPTER   VI I— MESMERISM   IN   ENGLAND         .  .  .     122    ' 

Professor  Bell,  de  Mainauduc,  and  others — Demonstrations  ^ 

by  Chenevix  in  1829  :  Chenevix  a  believer  in  suggestion — 
Elliotson's  demonstrations  in  1838  at  University  College  on 
the  Okey  girls — Suspicions  of  fraud — The  case  of  Anne  Ross 
and  others — Waklcy's  counter-experiments  with  the  Okeys — 
EUiotson  resigns  from  University  College — Induced  anaes- 
thesia and  the  incredulity  of  the  medical  profession  :  the  case 
of  Wombell  and  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Society  :  Esdaile's 
painless  surgery  in  India:  Lord  Ducie  and  the  Medical 
Gazette — Braid's  view  :  his  hypothesis  of  suggestion,  and  his 
counter-experiments  —  Discovery  of  chloroform,  growth  of 
modern  Spiritualism  and  concurrent  decay  of  interest  in 
Mesmerism 


CONTENTS  xiii 

PACK 

CHAPTER   VIII.— THE    FLUIDIC   THEORY.  .  .  .151 

Fluid  or  fraud  :  no  room  found  for  the  intermediate  views  of 
Bertrand  and  Braid — Alleged  proofs  of  Magnetic  fluid — 
Reichenbach's  experiments  :  his  unscientific  temper  :  his 
subjects  probably  unconsciously  "  educated" — Braid's  counter- 
experiments — His  demonstrations  completely  ignored  by 
Reichenbach  and  the  Mesmerists  —  Braid's  own  demon- 
strations in  Phreno-mesmerism  possibly  due  to  thought- 
transference —  Thought-transference  a  possible  explanation 
of  induction  of  trance  or  sleep  at  a  distance  :  experim.ents  by 
Townshend  and  later  experiments  by  Janet  and  Gibert 

CHAPTER    IX.— CLAIRVOYANC 168 

Community  of  sensation  and  clairvoyance  partly  explicable  by 
thought-transference — Clairvoyance  at  close  quarters  largely 
fraudulent— But  probably  in  some  cases  due  to  hyperaesthesia 
of  vision — The  case  of  Alexis  Didier — His  card-playing  and 
reading  in  closed  books — Houdin's  testimony  —  Alexis 
probably  an  automatist — His  description  of  sealed  packets 
and  of  distant  scenes  possibly  indicative  of  supernormal 
power — Other  examples  of  probably  telepathic  clairvoyance 
given  by  Lee,  Haddock,  Gregory — Many  Mesmerists  see  in 
these  demonstrations  proof  of  the  action  of  the  soul  apart 
from  the  body 

CHAPTER  X.— SPIRITUALISM   IN   FRANCE  .  .  .192 

The  physical  theories  of  Animal  Magnetism  gradually  found 
to  be  inadequate  :  clairvoyance,  prevision,  and  other  faculties 
interpreted  as  pointing  to  a  world  transcending  sense — Views 
of  Tardy,  Puysegur,  Deleuze — The  Exegetical  Society  of 
Stockholm  in  1788  held  converse  with  spirits  through  the 
mouths  of  entranced  mediums — Their  views  adopted  by 
some  French  Magnetists— Alphonse  Cahagnet  (1847)  and 
his  somnambules  :  their  celestial  visions  :  their  interviews 
with  deceased  persons  :  the  effect  on  Modern  Spiritualism 

CHAPTER  XL— SPIRITUALISM   IN   GERMANY      .  .  .205 

Animal  Magnetism  more  widely  practised  by  medical  men  in 
Germany  than  in  France  or  Engl.ind — Prevalence,  at  first,  of 
physical  theories,  gradually  yielding  to  Spiritualist  views — 
Wesermann's  experiments  in  transference  of  thought :  many 
cases  of  clairvoyance  —  The  case  of  Julie  recorded  by 
Strombeck  :  her  visits  to  heaven  :  her  predictions  of  her 
illness  :  the  method  of  treatment  prescribed  in  the  trance  : 


xiv      MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


her  dictatorial  attitude — Other  somnambules  described  by 
Romer,  Werner,  and  others — The  Seeress  of  Prevorst :  her 
supernormal  powers:  her  conversations  with  spirits:  her 
revelations  on  spiritual  matters — The  Spiritualist  view  widely 
accepted  in  Germany  by  writers  of  some  standing 


CHAPTER  XII.— THE  COMING  OF  THE  PROPHETS  . 

By  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  trance  is  widely 
recognised  as  opening  a  door  to  the  spiritual  world — Cha- 
racteristics of  the  movement  in  America — Andrew  Jackson 
Davis:  his  childhood  and  youtii  —  He  dictates  Natures 
Divine  Revelations — The  doctrines  taught  in  the  book — 
They  accurately  reflect  ideas  on  scientific,  social,  and 
religious  subjects  which  were  "in  the  air" — His  view  of 
disease  as  a  discord,  a  thing  having  no  existence  in  itself — 
His  views  on  marriage 


218 


CHAPTER  XIII— THOMAS   LAKE    HARRIS 

His  character  and  early  years — His  inspired  preaching — In 
1867  he  founds  the  Community  of  Brocton — Career  of  his 
chief  disciple,  Laurence  Oliphant — Breach  between  Harris 
and  Oliphant — Harris's  doctrines:  the  Inner  Breathing, 
Regeneration,  the  Celestial  Marriage,  Immortality,  a  social 
and  religious  Millennium — His  "inspired"  poems 


234 


CHAPTER   XIV.— THE    RISE   OF   MENTAL-HEALING      . 

Common  origin  of  Hypnotism  and  the  Mind-cure — Phincas 
Parkhurst  ^uimby  :  his  career  :  his  practice  in  healing  : 
testimonials  from  patients,  including  Mrs.  Eddy  :  his  phi- 
losophy— Disease  an  ancient  delusion — Quimby's  disciples  : 
the  Rev.  W.  F,  K:vans,  H.  W.  Dresser,  and  the  leaders  of  the 
New  Thought  Movement  —  The  doctrines  of  the  New 
Thought :  mental  invasion  or  obsession 


249 


CHAPTER   XV.— MARY   BAKER    EDDY  .  .  .  . 

Birth  and  early  years  :  marries  (1843)  G.  W.  Glover  :  marries 
(1853)  Dr.  Patterson — Visits  Quimbyand  is  cured  :  the  fall  on 
the  ice — Begins  to  teach  and  practise  healing  —  Richard 
Kennedy — Birth  of  Christian  Science — Marries  (1877)  A.  G. 
Eddy — In  the  law-courts  :  the  new  Witchcraft — The  New 
Church  :  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College — Science 
and  Health  —  The  organisation  of  the  Church,  and  Mrs. 
Eddy's  part  in  it 


262 


CONTENTS  XV 

PACK 

CHAPTER  XVI.— CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE       ,  .  .  .279 

Christian  Science  brings  healing,  comfort,  and  the  hope  of  a 
new  life — Various  testimonies  quoted — The  substance  of  the 
new  philosophy  and  religion  :  mainly  derived  from  Quimby,  but 
Mrs.  Eddy  a  disciple,  not  a  plagiarist — Characteristic  defects 
of  her  style  and  thought,  less  conspicuous  in  Science  and 
Health — The  nature  of  her  "inspiration"  —  Characteristic 
tenets  held  in  common  with  earlier  prophets  :  symbolic 
interpretation  of  Bible  :  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism  :  con- 
demnation of  friendship  and  marriage :  parthenogenesis  : 
decrease  of  human  mortality  :  our  Father-Mother  God — Her 
claim  to  be  the  divinely  appointed  author  of  a  new  gospel 


INDEX 301 


MESMERISM    AND    CHRISTIAN 
SCIENCE       ,-:,.,;„,, 

CHAPTER   I     '^ •'  '''''^'-  ''  ^'  ^'-'  >'°'  ''" 

HEALING  BY  FLUID 

Early  life  of  Mesmer — He  comes  to  Paris  at  the  psychological  moment : 
his  acquaintance  with  Deslon  :  his  immediate  success — Description 
of  the  Baquet  and  the  Magnetic  treatment  generally — Accounts  of 
typical  cures  extracted  from  a  contemporary  work,  the  Supplement 
aux  Deux  Rapports — Discussion  of  the  observed  symptoms,  and  of 
the  nature  and  significance  of  the  cures. 

IN  February,  1778,  there  came  to  Paris  a  Viennese  physi- 
cian, Friedrich  Anton  Mesmer,  the  originator  of  the  art 
of  Mesfnertsm,  and,  incidentally,  of  many  other  things. 
Mesmer  was  at  this  time  over  forty  years  of  age ;  the  date 
and  the  place  of  his  birth  are  alike  uncertain,  but  he  was 
orobably  born  in  1733  or  1734,  somewhere  on  the  borders  of 
Lake  Constance  ;  according  to  one  account  at  Meersburg,  in 
^uabia.^    It  is  known,  however,  that  he  had  taken  his  doctor's 
legree  at  Vienna  twelve  years  before,  in   1766,  with  an  in- 
•ugural  thesis  bearing  the  title  De  planetarum  influxu,  or,  as 
e  himself  translated  it  later,  "  On  the  Influence  of  the  Planets 
n  the  Human  Body."     In    1773  he  first  came  into  public 
otice.     In  that  year  he  employecl  in  the  treatment  of  some 
f  his  patients  certain  magnetic  plates,  of  a  particular  form, 
le   invention   of  the    Jesuit    Father    Hell,   a    professor   of 
'  Biographie  universelle,  art.  "  Mesmer." 


2       MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

astronomy  at  Vienna.  Father  Hell  claimed  the  credit  of 
the  resultant  cures,  as  due  to  the  use  of  his  plates.  Mesmer 
retorted  that  the  plates  were  but  a  subsidiary  part  of  the 
treatment,  which  consisted  essentially  in  a  novel  method  of 
applying  magnetic  forces  to  the  human  body.  The  contro- 
vers>'  between  the  two  men  seems  to  have  been  carried  on 
with  considerable  bitterness.  Father  Hell  found  a  champion 
and  ally  in  Dr.  Ingenhouze,  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  London. 

Starting  from  this  controversy,  and  probably  as  a  direct 
conseqii'eric'e  of  it,  Mesmer  proceeded,  in  the  course  of  the 
li^>it  few  years,  to  define  his  theory  with  more  precision. 
-Thehceforvvard  his  claim  is  to  have  discovered  a  new  fluid, 
having  analogies  with  mineral  magnetism,  but  independent 
of  it,  which  could  be  made  to  act  upon  the  human  body. 
After  1776,  he  tells  us  in  his  Precis  historique,  he  ceased 
altogether  to  make  use  of  magnets  or  electricity  in  his  treat- 
ment.'  His  views  at  this  period  were  set  forth  in  "  A  letter 
to  a  foreign  physician,"  dated  January  5,  1775,  which  was 
published  in  the  Nouveau  Mcrciirc  Savant  of  Altona.  It 
will  be  more  convenient  to  defer  the  detailed  consideration  of 
the  theory  to  the  next  chapter,  and  proceed  at  this  point  to 
give  some  account  of  Mesmer's  career  and  of  the  success  of 
his  treatment.  With  the  view  of  making  his  discoveries 
better  known,  as  he  tells  us,  he  travelled  between  the  years 
1773  and  1778  in  various  parts  of  the  Continent,  chiefly  in 
Switzerland,  Suabia,  and  Bavaria.  He  also  sent  an  account 
of  his  new  system  to  the  principal  learned  bodies  of  Europe, 
including  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  at  Paris,  and  the  Academy  at  Berlin.  The  last 
alone  deigned  to  reply  to  his  communication :  the  reply  was 
to  the  effect  that  the  discovery  was  an  illusion. 

«  Prech  historique  des  Fails  relati/s  au  Magnetisme  animal  (London, 
1781),  p.  12.  Mesmer's  original  idea  would  seem  to  have  been  that  his 
"new  force"  was  simply  a  moditication  of  ordinary  magnetism,  and 
that  it  could  be  reinforced  by  the  use  of  magnets  (see  Burdin  and 
Dubois,  Hist,  academiquc,  p.  234).  The  construction  of  the  Baquct 
(see  below)  shows  that  he  had  not  entirely  disabused  himself  of  this 
idea  even  so  late  as  1778. 


HEALING   BY   FLUID  3 

In  the  meantime  a  good  many  cures  appear  to  have  been 
effected  under  Mesmer's  treatment.  One  case,  in  particular, 
gave  him  considerable  notoriety  and  was  ultimately  the 
cause  of  his  leaving  Vienna.  Mdlle.  de  Paradis  was  a  girl 
of  eighteen,  who  had  been  completely  blind  from  the  age 
of  four.  Mesmer  diagnosed  the  malady,  in  the  medical 
terminology  of  the  day,  as  a  "  complete  gutta  serena,"  ^  and 
tells  us  that  the  eyes  were  projecting  almost  out  of  the  sockets  ; 
and  that  the  patient  was  suffering  further  from  congested 
liver  and  spleen,  with  many  disagreeable  and  painful  conse- 
quences. The  girl,  who  was  in  receipt,  on  account  of  her 
blindness,  of  a  pension  from  the  Empress,  to  whom  she  was 
known  personally,  had  been  for  many  years  treated,  without 
appreciable  relief,  by  Dr.  Storck,  President  of  the  Faculty, 
and  by  others  of  the  leading  physicians  in  Vienna.  Mesmer 
in  1777  treated  the  patient  by  his  method,  and  claimed  to 
have  restored  her  sight.  The  fame  of  the  cure  was  blazoned 
all  over  Europe.  But  its  reality  was  immediately  contested 
by  some  of  the  faculty,  who  asserted  that  the  girl  on  a  trial 
had  proved  herself  unable  even  to  distinguish  colours.  The 
girl's  father  was  persuaded  to  take  his  daughter  out  of 
Mesmer's  hands.  Mesmer  resisted,  and  retained  the  charge 
of  the  case  for  a  month  longer.  Considerable  scandal  was 
caused ;  Mesmer  was  forced  to  give  the  girl  up  to  her 
relatives,  and  shortly  afterwards  found  it  convenient  to  leave 
Vienna. 

It  is  perhaps  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  Mesmer's  own 
account  of  the  Paradis  incident  differs  materially  from  that 
of  his  opponents.  It  is  of  course  impossible  now  to  disen- 
tangle the  truth.  But  it  may  be  pointed  out  that,  from  the 
description  given,  the  disease  of  the  eye  may  have  been  func- 
tional only  ;  and  the  statements  of  both  sides  are  consistent 
with  the  supposition  that  a  considerable  improvement  in  the 
patient's  powers  of  vision  had  been  effected  temporarily  under 
Mesmer's  treatment,  followed  soon  afterwards  by  a  relapse 

*  Under  this  term  the  physicians  of  that  day  included  all  cases  of 
blindness  in  which  no  sign  of  disease  could  be  discovered  in  the  eye 
itself. 


4       MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

to  her  former  state.  Ironical  chance  brought  it  to  pass  that 
Mdlle.  Paradis  appeared  as  a  public  singer  at  Paris  in  1784, 
Mesmer's  fatal  year,  and  she  was,  according  to  contemporary 
evidence,  blind  at  that  date.^  It  is  noteworthy  that  among 
the  cures  claimed  later  under  Mesmer's  treatment  there  are 
several  cases  of  disease  of  the  eye. 

Such,  briefly,  were  the  antecedents  and  such  the  reputation 
of  the  man  who  came  to  Paris  at  the  beginning  of  1778,  fur- 
nished, as  he  tells  us,  with  an  introduction  from  the  Austrian 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  to  the  Austrian  ambassador  in 
Paris.  He  took  lodgings  near  the  Place  Vendome,  and 
started  in  a  sufficiently  humble  way,  with  a  single  servant 
and  a  second-hand  carriage.  But  he  had  all  the  qualities  and 
conditions  that  command  success.  The  cures  which  he 
had  already  effected,  or  claimed  to  have  effected,  spoke 
eloquently  for  him.  The  mysterious  new  principle  of  life, 
of  which  he  vaunted  himself  the  discoverer,  appealed  to 
the  imagination  of  the  merely  curious,  and  to  the  hopes 
of  all  who  suffered  and  could  find  no  relief.  He  was  a 
man  of  magnificent  self-confidence,  and  spoke  with  authority. 
To  judge  by  his  writings  he  was  possessed  of  a  ready  wit 
and  sufficient  intellectual  resources  to  back  up  his  preten- 
sions. Further,  we  are  told  that  he  was  an  admirable 
musician,  that  he  played  well  on  the  piano  and  entranc- 
ingly  on  the  harmonica,  then  an  almost  unknown  instru- 
ment.2  Add  that,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Deleuze, 
who  conversed  with  many  of  those  who  had  been  his 
patients  or  pupils,  Mesmer  was  a  man  of  great  tenderness 
and  kindness  of  heart,  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  sick  and 
suffering  ;  that  he  opened  his  doors  alike  to  the  rich  and 
poor,  and  gave  to  the  latter  without  payment  all  that  he  gave 
to  the  rich  in  return  for  substantial  fees. 3  No  doubt  such  a 
course  of  action  was  good  policy,  and  Mesmer  himself,  no 
doubt,  recognised  that  fact.     But  it  is  certain  that  he  suc- 

'  Biographic  universelle. 

»  Burdin   and   Dubois,  Histoire  academique  du   Magnettsme  animal 

(1841).  P-  5- 

'  Histoire  critique,  vol.  ii.  p.  1 1. 


HEALING   BY   FLUID  5 

ceeded  in  inspiring  lively  gratitude  in  his  patients,  and  in- 
vincible enthusiasm  in  his  disciples. 

Moreover,  Mesmer  arrived  at  the  psychological  moment. 
Paris  has  always  been  ready  to  see  or  hear  some  new  thing. 
But  the  years  preceding  the  French  Revolution  were  years 
of  peculiar  intellectual  ferment.  We  see  the  result  in  the 
scientific  discoveries  of  Lavoisier  and  Laplace  ;  in  the  new 
social,  political,  and  philosophic  conceptions  of  Rousseau, 
Diderot,  and  the  Encyclopaedists.  But  the  same  causes  pro- 
duced a  general  licence  of  speculation  and  gave  birth  to  in- 
numerable false  and  extravagant  systems.  No  belief  was  too 
preposterous  to  find  a  following  among  the  idle  rich.  The 
Paris  which  a  generation  previously  had  half  believed  the 
monstrous  fables  of  the  Count  St.  Germain,  which  a  few 
years  later  was  to  listen  indulgently  to  another  "  Count " — 
Cagliostro — was  not  likely  to  be  unduly  critical  in  its  accept- 
ance of  one  who  not  only  gave  them  a  new  sensation,  but 
promised  substantial  benefits  therewith. 

With  all  these  things  in  his  favour  Mesmer  and  his  treat- 
ment soon  became  famous.  In  the  autumn  of  1778  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Charles  Deslon,  Doctor  Regent  of  the 
Faculty  of  Paris,  and  physician  to  the  Count  d'Artois. 
Deslon  happened  to  meet  Mesmer  at  the  bedside  of  a 
patient,  was  much  impressed  with  his  conversation  and  his 
medical  knowledge,  and  shortly  became  an  enthusiastic 
advocate  of  the  treatment.  At  this  time  Mesmer  was 
devoting  himself  to  writing  an  account  of  his  discovery.  He 
was  very  meanly  lodged,  "  un  salon  que  le  moindre  bourgeois 
de  Paris  trouveroit  trop  petit  pour  sa  compagnie,"  i  and  he 
was  treating  only  a  few  patients.  He  was  forced,  however,  as 
Deslon  tells  us,  by  persistent  solicitations  to  enlarge  the  circle. 
At  the  time  when  Deslon's  book  was  written  he  had  seventy 
persons  actually  under  treatment ;  six  hundred  places 
were  promised  ;  and  several  thousand  applications  had  been 
received.  To  enable  him  to  husband  his  powers  in  the  treat- 
ment of  a  large  number  of  patients,  he  devised  a  method,  in 

'  Deslon,  Observations  sur  le  Magnetisme  animal  (London,  1780), 
p.  29. 


6       MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

accordance  with  his  theory  of  Animal  Magnetism,  for  treat- 

;^  them  en  masse.     This  was  the  Baquet. 

The  Baquet  was  a  large  oaken  tub,  four  or  five  feet  in 
diameter  and  a  foot  or  more  in  depth,  closed  by  a  wooden 
cover.  Inside  the  tub  were  placed  bottles  full  of  water 
disposed  in  rows  radiating  from  the  centre,  the  necks  in  some 
of  the  rows  pointing  towards  the  centre,  in  others  away  from 
it.  All  these  bottles  had  been  previously  "  magnetised  "  by 
Mesmer.  Sometimes  there  were  several  rows  of  bottles,  one 
above  the  other ;  the  machine  was  then  said  to  be  at  high 
pressure.  The  bottles  rested  on  layers  of  powdered  glass  and 
iron  filings.  The  tub  itself  was  filled  with  water.  The  whole 
machine,  it  will  be  seen,  was  a  kind  of  travesty  of  the  galvanic 
cell.  To  carry  out  the  resemblance,  the  cover  of  the  tub  was 
pierced  with  holes,  through  which  passed  slender  iron  rods  of 
var}'ing  lengths,  which  were  jointed  and  movable,  so  that 
they  could  be  readily  applied  to  any  part  of  the  patient's 
body.  Round  this  battery  the  patients  were  seated  in  a 
circle,  each  with  his  iron  rod.  Further,  a  cord,  attached  at 
one  end  to  the  tub,  was  passed  round  the  body  of  each  of  the 
sitters,  so  as  to  bind  them  all  into  a  chain.  Outside  the  first 
a  second  circle  would  frequently  be  formed,  who  would  con- 
nect themselves  together  by  holding  hands.  Mesmer,  in  a 
lilac -XQt)e,  and  his  assistant  operators — vigorous  and  hand- 
some young  men  selected  for  the  purpose — walked  about  the 
room,  pointing  their  fingers  or  an  iron  rod  held  in  their 
hands  at  the  diseased  parts. 

The  progress  of  the  cures  was  generally  furthered  by  the 
application  of  the  operator's  hand  to  various  parts  of  the 
body,  and  especially  by  the  pressure  of  the  fingers  on  the 
abdomen.  And  this  pressure  was  often  maintained  for  a 
considerable  time — sometimes  even  for  several  hours.'  The 
proceedings  were  enlivened  throughout  by  excellent  music 
from  a  piano  or  other  instrument. 

The  effect  produced  by  this  procedure  varied  naturally 
according  to  the  temperament  of  the  patient  and  the  nature 
of  his  ailment.  A  frequent  and  characteristic  phase,  especi- 
'  According  to  Bailly's  Report. 


i 


I 


i 


HEALING  BY  FLUID  7 

ally  with  women,  was  the  occurrence  of  the  "  crisis."  The 
following  description  of  the  crisis,  as  observed  amongst 
Deslon's  patients  in  1784,  is  taken  from  the  Report  of  the 
Commission  appointed  by  the  King  from  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Science  and  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  : —  ^ 

"  The  tableau  presented  by  the  patients  is  one  of  extreme  diversity. 
Some  are  calm,  composed,  and  feel  nothing ;  others  cough,  spit,  have 
slight  pains,  feel  a  glow  locally  or  all  over  the  body,  accompanied  by 
perspiration  ;  others  are  shaken  and  tormented  by  convulsions.  These 
convulsions  are  remarkable  in  their  frequency,  their  duration,  and  their 
intensity.  As  soon  as  one  attack  begins  others  make  their  appearance. 
The  Commission  has  seen  them  last  for  more  than  three  hours  ;  they 
are  accompanied  by  expectorations  of  a  viscous  matter,  torn  from  the 
chest  by  the  violence  of  the  attack.  Sometimes  there  are  traces  of 
blood  in  the  expectoration.  The  convulsions  are  characterised  by 
involuntary  spasmodic  movements  of  the  limbs  and  of  the  whole  body, 
by  contractions  of  the  throat,  by  spasms  of  the  hypochondriac  and 
epigastric  regions  ;  the  eyes  are  wandering  and  distracted  ;  there  are 
piercing  cries,  tears,  hiccoughs,  and  extravagant  laughter.  The  con- 
vulsions are  preceded  and  followed  by  a  state  of  languor  and  reverie, 
by  exhaustion  and  drowsiness.  Any  sudden  noise  causes  the  patients 
to  start,  and  even  a  change  in  the  music  played  on  the  piano  has  an 
effect — a  lively  tune  agitates  them  afresh  and  renews  the  convulsions." 

/  A  special  room — the  Salle  des  Crises — carefully  padded, 
L_  was  set  aside  for  the  reception  of  the  more  violent  patients. 
Such  was  the  nature  of  the  treatment  practised  by  Mesmer 
and  his  disciples.  Of  its  effect  in  curing  or  alleviating 
suffering  we  can  judge  by  the  claims  put  forward  by  his 
disciples ;  by  the  admissions  made  by  his  adversaries ;  and, 
above  all,  by  the  great  and  continually  greater  crowds  which 
thronged  his  reception-rooms.  In  the  one  year — 1784 — Mes- 
mer and  Deslon  are  said  to  have  treated  about  eight  thousand 
persons.2  Mesmer's  clients  were  drawn  in  great  part  from 
the  upper  ranks  of  society,  and  included,  as  will  be  shown 

'  Deslon  was,  as  said,  a  pupil  of  Mesmer's,  and  had  adopted  his 
methods,  including  the  Baquet,  so  that  the  following  description,  which 
has  the  advantage  of  being  drawn  up  by  a  committee  of  medical  men 
and  scientific  experts,  would  apply  equally  to  the  treatment  of  the 
patients  in  Mesmer's  own  practice. 

'  Regnier,  Hypnotisme  et  Croyances  anciennes  (1891),  p.  123. 


8       MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

later,  many  officials,  landed  proprietors,  officers  of  the  army, 
priests,  and  even  physicians.  It  is  incredible  that  the  fame 
of  his  treatment  could  have  persisted  and  continually 
increased  unless  many  of  these  persons  had  derived  sub- 
stantial benefit  from  it.  We  are  not  left,  however,  without 
more  precise  and  circumstantial  evidence  of  Mesmer's 
success. 

In  1780  Deslon  published  the  book  already  cited,  Obsetiui- 
tions  sur  le  Magnctisnie  animal,  giving  details  of  eighteen 
cases  treated  by  Mesmer,  in  which  of  his  own  observation  he 
could  testify  to  substantial  relief  or  a  complete  cure.  Of 
these  eighteen  patients,  ten  were  males,  including  Deslon 
himself,  and  eight  women.  Amongst  the  women  were  two 
or  three  cases  of  swellings  diagnosed  as  schirri  or  "cancer 
occulte."  For  the  rest,  the  ailments  treated  included  three 
cases  of  blindness,  complete  or  partial  ;  two  of  deafness, 
paralysis,  marasmus,  hepatic  flux,  epilepsy,  obstructed 
spleen,  &c.  The  history  of  these  cases  is  not  given  very 
fully,  and  the  details  furnished  are  probably  not  sufficient  in 
most  cases  to  enable  a  modern  physician  to  determine 
exactly  the  nature  of  the  ailment.  The  book  is  valuable 
chiefly  as  indicating  the  impression  created  by  Mesmer's 
treatment  on  a  contemporary  observer  who  was  himself  a 
physician  of  some  standing  in  his  profession. 

In  August,  1784,  appeared  the  Report  of  Bailly's  Commis- 
sion, from  which  a  passage  has  been  already  quoted.  This 
Report,  whilst  severely  condemning  the  practice  of  Animal 
Magnetism,  deliberately  ignored  its  therapeutic  effects,  for 
reasons  which  will  be  considered  later  on.  Some  one, 
possibly  Deslon  himself,  proceeded  to  supply  this  extra- 
ordinary omission  by  collecting  reports  of  cases  actually 
treated,  chiefly  by  Deslon.  The  results  were  published  in  an 
anonymous  pamphlet  before  the  end  of  the  year.  There  was 
not,  of  course,  time  to  hunt  up  older  cases  ;  and  as  a  matter 
of  fact  nearly  all  the  records  relate  to  the  years  1782-1784. 
But,  apart  from  the  fact  that  the  "crisis"  seems  to  have  been  a 
less  prominent  feature  than  earlier  accounts  would  have  led 
us  to  suppose,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  treatment 


HEALING  BY   FLUID  9 

and  the  results  in  these  later  years  differed  materially  from 
what  had  gone  before.  These  records  were  at  any  rate 
admirably  fitted  to  the  particular  purpose  in  view,  since  the 
Commissioners  did  not  begin  their  investigations  until  1784, 
and  all  this  material  for  forming  a  judgment  on  the  curative 
effects  of  the  treatment  was  actually  ready  to  their  hands. 
Some  account  of  these  cures  is  introduced  here,  that  the 
reader  may  see  what  grounds  there  were  for  the  extraordinary 
vogue  attained  by  Mesmer  and  his  disciples,  and,  it  may  be 
added,  for  the  extreme  embitterment  of  the  profession. 

The  records  published  in  1784,  under  the  title  5?^/'/'//;«^«^ 
aux  Deux  Rapports  de  MM.  Ics  Conuniss aires.  Sic,  deal  with 
115  cases.i  They  are  for  the  most  part  written  by  the 
patients  themselves  ;  the  physicians  were,  no  doubt  for 
professional  reasons,  reluctant  to  let  themselves  appear  as  in 
any  way  concerned  with  a  treatment  which  had  just  been 
authoritatively  denounced  as  a  gross  and  dangerous  impos- 
ture. But  it  is  clear  that  the  diagnosis — where  the  nature 
of  the  disease  permitted  the  science  of  that  date  to  furnish 
any  diagnosis — was  derived  in  many  instances  from  the 
physicians  who  had  previously  treated  the  case  without 
success.  And,  it  may  be  added,  the  few  reports  furnished  by 
medical  men  which  are  included  are  scarcely  more  illuminat- 
ing, from  the  standpoint  of  modern  medicine,  than  those 
written  by  laymen.  It  should  be  noted,  further,  that  in 
several  cases  the  physicians,  confessedly  at  the  end  of  their 
resources,  themselves  advised  recourse  to  Animal  Magnetism. 

No  doubt  the  records  were  to  some  extent  selected,  though 
in  one  passage  the  editor  implies  that  they  were  not.  But,  in 
view  of  the  pressure  of  time,  the  collectors  probably  took 
every  fairly  good  case  which  they  could  get.  A  large  num- 
ber of  those  included,  indeed,  refer  to  cures  still  proceeding, 
and  the  patients  can  in  such   cases,  therefore,  record  only 

'  The  summary  at  the  end  of  the  book  speaks  of  iii  persons.  But 
the  number  is  not  correct.  The  book,  as  will  appear  from  the  date, 
was  compiled  under  great  pressure  ;  there  are  many  mistakes  in  proper 
names,  and  the  compiler  has  omitted  to  take  notice  that  some  of  the 
reports  deal  with  more  than  one  patient. 


10     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

partial  alleviation  of  their  symptoms.  If  the  reports  were 
not  deliberately  selected  with  that  view,  it  is  certainly  note- 
worthy that  the  men  are  more  numerous  than  the  women. 
Of  103  adults  56  are  men  and  47  women.  A  notable  propor- 
tion of  the  men  are  persons  of  distinction,  or  at  least  of  good 
social  position — marquises,  counts,  high  officials  and  men  of 
affairs,  doctors,  abbes,  &c.  There  are  also  many  titled 
ladies.  For  the  rest,  the  list  includes  a  few  domestic 
servants,  artisans,  and  working  men  and  women. 

As  already  indicated,  the  reports  are  cited  not  so  much  for 
their  medical  interest — which  must  be  left  for  the  profession 
to  determine — as  for  the  evidence  they  afford  of  the  effect 
produced  on  Mesmer's  patients  and  on  the  public.  Whatever 
explanation  we  may  choose  to  give  of  the  facts,  it  is  certain 
that  a  large  number  of  persons  believed  themselves  to  be 
seriously  ill  for  months  or  years  before  they  went  to  Mesmer 
or  Deslon  for  treatment,  and  believed  themselves  after  that 
treatment  to  be  relieved  of  their  worst  symptoms,  or  even  to 
be  completely  restored  to  health.  Some  of  them,  perhaps 
were  not  really  ill  when  they  went,  and  some  others  may 
not  have  been  really  cured  when  they  left.  But  it  is  impos- 
sible after  reading  these  reports  to  doubt  that,  in  a  large 
number  of  cases,  obstinate  and  long-standing  ailments,  which 
had  resisted  all  the  ordinary  remedies,  were  cured  or  sub- 
stantially alleviated.  Whether  these  results  were  produced 
by  a  subtle  fluid,  by  the  imagination  of  the  patient,  by  the 
curative  processes  of  Nature  when  no  longer  embarrassed  by 
drugs,  the  cupping-glass,  and  the  moxa,  or  by  any  other 
cause,  seems  at  this  distance  of  time  a  question  which  even 
the  Royal  Commission  might  not  have  found  beneath  the 
dignity  of  their  science  to  examine.  Bailly  and  his  brother 
Commissioners  had  excused  themselves  from  pursuing  their 
inquiries  into  the  curative  effects  of  Magnetism  partly  on  the 
ground  that  they  feared  to  annoy  by  their  questions  the  dis- 
tinguished patients  who  sat  round  the  Baquet.  It  is  worth 
noting  that  many  of  these  distinguished  patients  came 
forward  to  give  their  testimony  in  this  volume.  For  persons 
of  education   and   refinement   it   can   scarcely   have  been  a 


HEALING  BY   FLUID  n 

congenial  task  to  enter  into  intimate  and  frequently  repulsive 
details  of  their  maladies  and  cure.  It  is  evident,  in  fact,  that 
in  many  cases  nothing  short  of  a  conviction  of  the  unfairness 
of  the  Report,  and  a  strong  sense  of  gratitude  to  Deslon  and 
his  colleagues,  would  have  induced  them  to  come  forward,^ 
The  circumstance  should  certainly  be  taken  into  account  in 
considering  the  value  of  their  testimony. 

In  the  brief  summary  which  follows  of  some  of  the  most 
interesting  of  the  cases  the  words  of  the  original  records 
have  been  followed  as  closely  as  possible.  The  medical 
reader  will,  no  doubt,  in  many  cases  be  able  to  form  his  own 
conclusions  as  to  the  nature  of  the  malady.  It  has  not  been 
thought  necessary  to  give  in  detail  an  account  of  the  effects 
produced.  Apart  from  the  subjective  sensations  of  warmth, 
tickling,  and  pain  referred  to  later,  the  chief  effect  of  the 
treatment,  at  any  rate  in  its  initial  stages,  was  to  cause 
copious  purging,  vomiting,  expectoration,  and  sweating. 
These  results,  or  some  of  them,  followed  practically  in  every 
case ;  and  no  doubt  the  beneficial  effects  of  the  treatment 
were  largely  due  to  this  circumstance.  For  the  richer  classes, 
at  any  rate,  in  that  day  seem  generally  to  have  been  of  a 
plethoric  habit,  and  the  treatment  usually  adopted  consisted 
in  purges,  emetics,  and  the  cupping-glass.  It  should  be 
added  that  both  Mesmer  and  Deslon  frequently  made  use 
of  cream  of  tartar  in  their  treatment ;  but  whereas  cream  of 
tartar  without  "Magnetism"  had  in  the  cases  recorded  proved 
ineffectual,  there  were  many  cases  in  which  Magnetism 
brought  about  the  desired  result  without  cream  of  tartar. 

With  a  view  to  meeting  the  objection  that  the  cures  were 
due  to  the  imagination  of  the  patients,  the  editors  placed  at 
the  head  of  their  list  twelve  cases  in  which  the  subjects  were 
children,  sometimes  of  very  tender  years.     We  need  not,  of 

*  See,  for  instance,  the  letter  from  Commandant  de  la  Vaultiere  (p.  47) : 
"  II  en  coute  infiniment,  Monsieur,  a  ma  fagon  de  penser  .  .  .  puisqut- 
ma  reponse  court  les  risques  de  la  publicite.  Cependant  je  me  rends 
par  respect  .  .  .  que  j'ai  pour  la  verite,  autant  encore  par  reconnois- 
sance  pour  MM.  Deslon  et  Bicnayme,  aux  soins  desquels  j'avais  cru 
jusqu'ici  devoir  mon  existence  et  ma  santc." 


12     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


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14     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

course,  endorse  the  editors'  reasoning ;  for  in  some  of  the 
cases  cited  the  children  were  quite  old  enough  to  be  amenable, 
as  in  the  modern  treatment  of  hypnotism,  to  psychological 
influences.  In  other  cases  the  improvement  observed  may 
reasonably    be    attributed    to    Nature    and    freedom     from  ^ 

drugs  and  bleeding.     As  the  symptoms,  however,  are  fairly  i 

well  defined,  and  the  cases  admit  therefore  of  being  sum- 
marised, a  table  is  appended  showing  the  results.  The  report 
is  furnished  by  the  parents  of  the  little  patients,  except  in 
case  8,  where  the  child  belonged  apparently  to  poor  persons. 
The  facts  in  this  case  are  attested  by  three  persons  — 
M.  Perruchot,  Viscountess  d'Allard,  and  Commandant  de  la 
Vaultiere. 

There  are  ten  reports  from  doctors  or  other  persons — a 
student  of  surgery  and  a  member  of  the  College  of 
Pharmacy  —  who  may  be  credited  with  some  medical 
knowledge.     A  brief  summary  of  these  cases  is  given. 

Cases  recorded  by  Doctors 

M.  Patillon,  doctor  of  the  faculty  of  Besan^on,  gives 
particulars  of  three  cases  in  his  own  practice  treated  by 
Animal  Magnetism. 

The  first  case  (p.  30)  was  that  of  a  domestic  servant 
who  had  been  suffering  for  five  weeks  from  severe  pains 
in  the  head.  The  malady,  of  which  the  cause  could  not 
be  discovered,  resisted  all  the  usual  remedies.  As  a  last 
resource  Patillon  counselled  a  trial  of  Magnetism,  and  the 
patient  after  some  hesitation  consented.  From  the  com- 
mencement of  the  treatment  the  pulse  became  softer  and 
more  frequent.  After  ten  minutes  the  pain  in  the  head 
was  transferred  to  the  muscles  of  the  neck  ;  thence  suc- 
cessively to  the  shoulder,  the  elbow,  and  the  wrist.  The 
pain  was  so  intense  that  the  patient  fainted.  She  was 
placed  on  her  bed  and  the  treatment  continued.  On 
waking  she  complained  of  the  severe  pain  in  her  wrist, 
and  Patillon  implored  her  to  endure  for  a  few  minutes 
longer,  in   order    that    the    cure    might    be    complete.     In 


HEALING   BY   FLUID  15 

effect,  she  soon  went  to  sleep  again  under  the  magnetic 
finger,  and  awoke  completely  freed  from  pain  after  fifty- 
minutes'   treatment. 

The  second  case  (p.  31)  was  that  of  a  lady  of  the 
Faubourg  St.  Germain,  who  had  suffered  from  severe 
sciatica  following  on  child-birth.  The  whole  lumbar  region 
was  affected  so  that  she  could  not  move  without  pain. 
Many  doctors  were  consulted  in  vain.  The  patient  was 
unable  to  leave  the  house,  the  general  health  gave  way, 
and  the  digestion  was  impaired.  Finally,  after  five  years 
of  suffering,  she  applied  to  Patillon  for  treatment  by 
Magnetism,  with  the  result  that  after  forty  days  all  pain 
left  her,  her  general  health  was  completely  restored,  and 
she  was  able  to  go  into  the  world  again  {elle  vaque  sans 
peine  a  ses  affaires). 

The  third  case  (p.  32)  was  that  of  a  young  girl  of 
eleven,  suffering  from  a  congenital  skin  disease  {gale) 
"  which  might  be  termed  leprous."  All  the  ordinary 
remedies  had  proved  useless.  After  fifteen  days'  treatment 
by  Animal  Magnetism  the  skin  had  changed  from  leaden 
colour  to  white  and  the  scabs  had  begun  to  fall  off, 
leaving  a  healthy  skin  behind.  The  treatment  was  still 
proceeding,  and  Patillon  was  confident  of  a  complete 
cure. 

Dr.  Hourry  (p.  33)  furnishes  a  diagnosis  of  his  own 
case.  He  suffered  from  a  congested  spleen  {une  obstruc- 
tion d  la  rate  d'un  volume  considerable)  ;  he  was  thin,  the 
skin  yellow,  had  dyspepsia  and  attacks  of  slow  fever. 
After  four  months'  treatment  he  found  his  powers  of  diges- 
tion completely  restored,  the  spleen  greatly  reduced  in  bulk 
and  much  less  inflamed.     Treatment  still  proceeding. 

Dr.  Thomas  Magnines  (p.  33)  had  also  suffered  for  about 
four  years  from  congestion  of  the  spleen.  In  the  winter 
of  1783  he  became  much  worse,  and  the  spleen  was  enor- 
mously enlarged.  After  three  months'  treatment  he  finds 
that  his  appetite  is  good  and  that  he  can  digest  well  ;  the 
yellowness  of  the  skin  is  almost  gone,  and  the  congestion 
of  the  spleen  is  lessened.     A  notable  point  is  that  Magnetism 


16     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

first  made  him  conscious  of  pain  in  the  spleen.  Treatment 
p-roceeding. 

Dr.  Pinorel  (p.  55)  had  suffered  for  some  months  from 
quartan  fever,  colic,  dysentery,  and  finally  "  angine  catarrale." 
After  being  very  near  death,  he  began  to  recover,  and  then 
fell  a  victim  to  a  new  fever  {erratique),  and  suffered 
excruciating  pains  from  head  to  foot.  After  some  weeks' 
treatment  by  M.  Deslon  he  finds  himself  almost  well 
aijain,  his  only  remaining  symptom  a  slight  congestion 
of  the  spleen  (apparently  first  revealed  to  him  by  Animal 
Magnetism). 

M.  Durand  (p.  56),  oculist  and  surgeon  to  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  reports  that  he  had  suffered  for  ten  years  from 
convulsive  asthma  and  severe  rheumatism  in  the  legs 
and  feet.  Further,  he  had  had  during  the  last  two  years 
three  attacks  of  blood-spitting,  for  which  he  had  been  bled 
fifteen  times.  After  a  few  months'  treatment  by  Animal 
Magnetism  he  finds  his  health  so  much  improved  that 
he  can  now  discharge  his  duties  without  difficulty.  Treat- 
ment apparently  still  proceeding. 

M.  Joyau  (p.  62),  pupil  in  surgery,  was  suffering  from 
attacks  of  fever,  congestion,  and  pain  in  spleen.  After  some 
weeks  of  treatment  he  finds  his  health  completely  restored. 
The  yellow  tint  of  the  skin  has  disappeared  ;  he  has  no  more 
pain,  and  no  pain  or  congestion  of  the  spleen. 

M.  Michaud  (p.  65),  surgeon,  sent  a  full  description  of 
his  ailments,  which  the  editors  apparently  found  too  long 
to  print.  But  it  appears  from  his  account  that  his  attacks 
have  under  magnetic  treatment  diminished  in  frequency,  but 
proportionally  increased  in  duration  and  intensity.  He  has 
recovered  his  sleep,  and  is  putting  on  flesh  a  little.  Treat- 
ment, which  had  been  in  operation  for  a  month,  is  still 
proceeding. 

M.  Quinquet  (p.  66),  member  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy, 
had  suffered  for  a  month  from  severe  sciatica,  which  robbed 
him  of  sleep  at  night,  and  compelled  him  to  make  use  of  a 
crutch.  Other  distressing  symptoms  made  their  appearance. 
His  physician  recommended  the  application  of  a  moxa.     He 


HEALING  BY   FLUID  17 

preferred  to  try  Magnetism  before  consenting  to  so  severe  a 
remedy.  He  received  immediate  relief,  and  after  some  weeks' 
treatment  he  left  completely  cured,  and  able  to  walk  without 
a  crutch. 

To  these  reports  we  may  add  the  record  (p.  68)  of  a  case 
in  which  we  have  a  description  of  the  patient's  symptoms 
both  from  herself  and  from  her  physician,  M.  de  la  Fisse, 
doctor  of  the  Faculty  of  Paris.  The  Countess  de  la  Blache 
had  been  ill  for  eight  years  ;  for  the  last  fourteen  months  she 
had  been  bedridden,  and  unable  even  to  rest  at  ease  in  bed. 
Her  physician,  writing  on  the  12th  of  August,  1782,  to  a 
near  relative,  describes  the  state  of  the  patient  as  leading  him 
to  fear  the  worst.  She  has  almost  lost  hearing,  power  of 
speech  or  movement.  She  breathes  with  great  difficulty,  and 
that  solely  by  the  use  of  the  abdominal  muscles,  the  chest 
remaining  quite  motionless.  Frequent  bleedings  and  the 
whole  resources  of  the  pharmacopoeia  have  failed  to  give 
appreciable  relief  The  patient  is  reduced  to  the  last 
extremity.  Immediately  after  this  report  Deslon  was  called 
in.  Madame  de  la  Blache  could  not  bear  to  be  touched,  and 
it  was  found  necessary  therefore  to  magnetise  her  from  a 
distance.  After  two  years'  treatment  she  finds  herself,  not 
indeed  completely  cured,  but  better  than  she  had  been 
for  eight  years  previously :  no  longer  bedridden,  but  able 
to  move  about,  and  with  the  full  use  of  her  voice  and 
senses.  Her  general  health  is  improved  ;  and  three  tumours 
{squirres)  have  disappeared  under  the  treatment. 

The  modern  physician  can  probably  do  no  more  than 
conjecture  the  nature  of  some  of  the  diseases  diagnosed 
by  his  predecessors  of  1784.  When  we  turn  to  the 
descriptions  given  by  the  patients  themselves,  inspired 
though  these  probably  were  in  most  cases  by  the  attendant 
physician,  the  difficulty  is  certainly  not  diminished.  Con- 
gested spleen,  retention  of  milk,  "  depots "  of  stagnant, 
viscous,  milky,  or  vicious  humours,  vaguely  localised 
"  obstructions,"  "  gutta  serena,"  agitation  of  nerves,  &c.,  play 
a  considerable  part  in  these  reports.  But  there  are  many  in 
which  the  ailment  is  clearly  defined  and  the  relief  afforded 


i8     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

incontrovertible.  "  Animal  Magnetism "  appears  to  have 
been  specially  efficacious  in  the  treatment  of  gouty  and 
rheumatic  affections. 


Cases  recorded  by  Laymen 

Thus  Madame  de  la  Perriere,  farmer-general,  had  suffered 
for  more  than  a  year  from  a  disease  which,  if  correctly 
described,  would  seem  to  have  been  rheumatoid  arthritis. 
She  had  rheumatic  pains  all  over  the  body  :  "  les  doigts 
se  courberent,  et  il  vint  des  nodus  a  toutes  les  articulations." 
After  following  the  magnetic  treatment  throughout  the 
summer  of  1783,  her  hands  returned  to  their  natural  state 
and  all  her  symptoms  disappeared  (p.  22). 

M.  Perruchot  (p.  28)  writes  that  he  had  suffered  from  gout 
for  three  years.  One  day  Deslon  happened  to  call  and 
found  him  in  bed  with  a  severe  attack  of  gout  in  the  foot. 
He  was  magnetised  and  experienced  immediate  relief. 
That  evening  he  dressed  himself  and  went  out  to  pay 
calls. 

Antoine  Santon  (p.  28),  valet  de  chambre  to  the  Count 
d'Artois,  had  suffered  for  six  months  from  rheumatism  in 
the  right  arm,  which  prevented  him  from  making  use  of 
the  limb.  Three  days'  treatment  from  Deslon  sufficed  to 
banish  the  pain  and  to  restore  the  use  of  the  arm.  Palpita- 
tion of  the  heart,  from  which  he  had  suffered  for  four  years, 
was  cured  at  the  same  time. 

Desanclos,  a  ferryman,  had  suffered  for  four  years  from 
rheumatism,  which  had  prevented  him  from  doing  his 
work.  At  the  time  of  writing  he  had  been  three  weeks 
under  treatment  and  already  found  his  pains  much  less,  and 
that  he  could  move  his  arms  and  legs  more  freely. 

M.  Leclerc  (p.  40)  was  so  rheumatic  that  he  could  not  put 
on  his  shoes.  After  some  months'  treatment  his  pain  has 
practically  disappeared.  He  is  now  in  superb  health  {^se 
porte  comme  un  royaume). 

Madame  Parceval  (p.  51),  widow  of  a  farmer-general, 
had   been    for   six  months  unable   to   move  her  arm    from 


HEALING   BY   FLUID  19 

rheumatism.  She  was  persuaded  by  her  children  to  try  the 
effects  of  Magnetism,  and  after  ten  minutes'  treatment  was 
able  to  move  the  arm  with  little  pain,  and  that  evening 
undressed  herself  and  did  her  hair  without  assistance  for  the 
first  time  for  six  months.  After  two  more  visits  the  pain  was 
entirely  cured. 

M.  de  Landresse  (p.  59)  had  suffered  for  some  years  from 
gouty  rheumatism,  which  attacked  particularly  the  joints 
of  the  hips,  knees,  and  feet.  Later  the  disease  attacked  the 
hands,  and  finally  the  eyes.  Ordinary  treatment  gave  him 
little  relief,  and  he  finally  came  to  consult  Deslon.  The 
treatment,  which  had  lasted  four  months,  is  still  proceeding  ; 
but  already  he  is  able  to  say  "  these  four  months  have  given 
me  a  new  life." 

An  interesting  case  is  that  of  M.  Chauvet,  a  priest  (p.  51). 
In  the  early  summer  of  1778  he  had  a  severe  attack  of 
rheumatism  which  confined  him  to  his  bed  for  three  months. 
Since  that  date  he  had  never  been  entirely  free  from 
rheumatic  pains  in  one  or  other  arm,  often  sufficiently  severe 
to  prevent  him  from  moving  it.  In  September,  1783,  some 
friend  persuaded  him  to  try  Animal  Magnetism.  He  went, 
and  was  half  persuaded  that  Deslon  was  a  charlatan  when  he 
saw  the  physician  point  his  index  finger  at  the  arm  affected 
and  approach  his  foot  to  that  of  his  patient.  But  his  opinion 
changed  when,  Deslon  having  placed  his  hand  on  the 
patient's  shoulder-blade,  there  followed  immediately  a  profuse 
perspiration  on  the  whole  left  side  of  the  body  (where  he  felt 
the  pain),  and  on  that  only.  His  collar  was  glued  to  his 
skin,  and  his  friends  saw  drops  of  sweat  rolling  down 
his  face.  His  pain  left  him  at  that  moment,  and  he  is  able 
a  year  later  to  write  that  he  no  longer  knows  what 
rheumatism  is. 

Gabriel  d'Effet  (p.  39)  had  suffered  for  ten  days  from  a 
sprained  shoulder,  the  pain  from  which  kept  him  awake  at 
night.  He  was  unable  to  do  his  work.  After  four  days' 
treatment  he  was  able  to  return  to  work. 

Frangoise  Lamotte  (p.  41)  had  been  unable  to  use  her  arm 
for  thirteen  months.     The  Magnetic  treatment,  which  is  still 


20     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

proceeding,  has  restored  the  use  of  her  arm  and  improved  her 
general  health. 

Besides  the  case  of  the  Countess  de  la  Blache,  already 
described,  there  are  several  instances  of  tumours  being  affected. 
Magdelon  Prin  (p.  43),  a  portress,  had  had  since  the  age  of 
fifteen  tumours  of  the  size  of  an  egg  on  her  leg  and  thigh. 
They  had  hitherto  resisted  all  medical  or  surgical  treatment, 
but  they  disappeared  after  ten  weeks'  treatment  by  M.  Deslon. 
Dame  Gaddant  (p.  76),  housekeeper  to  Madame  d'Avignon, 
had  suffered  seven  years  from  a  tumour  {squijTc)  nearly  as 
big  as  a  head,  also  from  dropsy  and  other  maladies.  After 
treatment  by  Animal  Magnetism  for  nearly  a  year  her  general 
health  was  restored,  and  her  tumour  had  entirely  disappeared. 
The  Marquise  de  Grasse  (p.  68)  suffered  for  fifteen  months 
from  "  glands  "  in  the  breast.  Ordinary  remedies  had  proved 
of  little  use,  when  not  actually  harmful.  But  a  desultory 
course  of  treatment  by  Animal  Magnetism,  spread  over  five 
months,  had  already  reduced  the  swellings  to  half  their  former 
size.     Treatment  apparently  proceeding. 

There  are  a  few  cases  in  which  Magnetism  is  said  to  have 
exerted  a  beneficial  effect  on  diseases  of  the  eye — inflam- 
mation, films,  ulcers,  blindness  "  du  lait  rcpandu."  15ut  though 
Mesmer  himself  claimed  on  more  than  one  occasion  to  have 
given  sight  to  the  blind,  there  is  no  case  amongst  this  set  of 
records  sufficiently  striking  to  be  worth  quoting. 

Jean  Gastal,  a  scullion  (p.  43),  reports  a  curious  case.  On 
a  fete  day  a  packet  of  fireworks  {fusees),  which  he  was 
carrying  in  the  pocket  of  his  apron,  had  exploded.  He  tried 
to  stop  the  explosion  by  pressing  the  box  between  his  thighs, 
but  made  matters  worse.  He  was  severely  burnt  on  the 
lower  part  of  the  body.  Deslon  on  the  spot  magnetised  the 
thighs,  and  on  the  morrow  Jean  was  able  to  remove  the  scab 
and  find  the  skin  underneath  quite  healed.  But  he  had  been 
reluctant  to  allow  the  lower  part  of  the  body,  which  had 
suffered  less  injury,  to  be  magnetised,  and  this  part  was  not 
healed  for  three  weeks.^ 

'  Compare  DelbcEuf's  experiment.  By  the  application  of  a  red-hot 
iron  bar  he  produced  on  each  arm  of  his  subject  a  burn  of  the  same 


HEALING   BY   FLUID  21 

We  have  two  cases  of  "putrid  fever."  In  the  first  case 
(M.  Gueffier,  p.  37)  bleeding  was  followed  by  delirium,  and, 
the  disease  taking  an  unfavourable  turn,  the  doctor  in 
attendance  told  the  relatives  to  prepare  for  the  worst. 
Deslon  was  called  in.  In  the  night  following  the  first  treat- 
ment the  delirium  left  the  patient,  and  the  worst  symptoms 
disappeared  ;  a  fortnight  later  he  was  able  to  eat  meat. 

In  Madame  Bov6's  case  (p.  37)  the  putrid  fever  was  com- 
plicated by  other  ailments,  and  the  physician,  in  despair, 
himself  called  in  Deslon.  Immediate  relief  was  experienced, 
and  fifteen  days  later  the  cure  was  assured. 

Of  diseases  of  the  abdominal  viscera,  or  of  ailments 
diagnosed  as  such,  two  or  three  cases  have  been  already 
quoted.     One  more  will  suffice. 

M.  de  la  Vaultiere  (p.  47),  commandant  of  the  Gardes 
de  la  Marine  at  Brest,  had  been  out  of  health  for  six  years. 
In  April,  1783,  he  contracted  a  serious  ailment  of  the  bladder. 
The  attacks  came  on  at  the  end  of  each  month,  causing  fever 
and  intense  pain,  for  which  temporary  relief  was  sought  by 
bleeding,  the  patient  parting  with  fifteen  or  sixteen  ounces  of 
blood  at  a  time.  Finally,  as  a  last  resource,  M.  de  la  Vaultiere 
came  to  Deslon  on  the  26th  of  December,  in  expectation  of 
the  usual  monthly  attack.  Magnetism  procured  relief,  and 
after  four  months'  treatment  he  was  able  to  leave  Paris  and 
return  to  his  duties  in  better  health  than  he  had  enjoyed  for 
six  years. 

The  Marquis  de  Rochegude  (p.  46)  sustained  in  January, 
1782,  a  stroke  which  enfeebled  all  the  left  side  and  rendered 
the  left  arm  powerless.  Mesmer  treated  it  by  Magnetism  and 
bleeding  alternately,  and  he  was  cured  in  twenty-four  hours. 
A  fresh  attack  a  year  later  was  cured  by  Magnetism  alone  in 
a  few  days.  A  third  and  more  severe  attack,  in  April,  1784, 
required  four  months'  treatment.  But  the  patient  was  com- 
pletely cured,  except  for  a  slight  difficulty  in  speaking. 

dimensions.  He  suggested  that  the  burn  on  the  right  should  be  pain- 
less ;  not  only  was  the  injury  painless,  but  it  healed  much  more  rapidly 
and  with  less  inflammation  than  the  other  (quoted  by  Bramwell, 
Hypnotism,  p.  84;  see  also  p.  368). 


22     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

A  case  typical  in  many  respects  is  that  of  M.  Gerbier, 
advocate  (p.  53).  He  had  been  in  ill-health  for  years.  He 
suffered  from  catarrh,  which  persisted  for  months  together  ; 
his  nerves  were  in  a  sad  state,  his  slumbers  broken,  his 
digestion  so  feeble  that  he  was  reduced  to  a  vegetarian  diet. 
After  some  months'  treatment  his  health  underwent  a  won- 
derful change  for  the  better.  Hfs  nerves  troubled  him  no 
more,  he  found  that  he  could  eat  and  digest  what  he  liked, 
and  his  tendency  to  catarrh  appears  to  have  been  stopped 
altogether.     He  has  enjoyed  the  best  of  health  for  two  years. 

It  is  useless  and  would  be  tedious  to  multiply  testimonies.  J 
From  the  cases  already  cited  the  reader  can  gain  a  fair  idea 
of  the  whole.  Of  the  115  persons  whose  cases  are  here 
recorded  nearly  half  profess  themselves  to  have  been  com- 
pletely cured,  and  of  the  remainder  all  but  si.x  experienced 
sensible  relief  under  the  treatment.  The  six  excefitions  were 
persons  who  had  not  been  under  treatment  for  more  than  a 
few  weeks,  and  who  still  continued  to  attend  in  the  hope  of 
a  cure. 

No  doubt  the  list  included  some  who  were  malades  imagi- 
naires.  Further,  as  already  pointed  out,  the  large  majority  of 
the  testimonies  cited  necessarily  proceeded  from  persons 
still  attending  the  Baquet,  or  who  had  ceased  to  attend  for  a 
relatively  brief  period.  It  may  be  contended,  therefore, 
that  the  permanence  of  the  cures  in  these  cases  had  not  been 
demonstrated.  A  certain  amount  of  exaggeration,  no  doubt, 
must  also  be  allowed  for.  Partly  from  gratitude,  partly  from 
love  of  sensation,  partly  from  the  mere  wish  to  believe,  many 
patients  would  describe  their  cure  as  more  complete  than  the 
facts  would  warrant.  But  whatever  deductions  are  made  on 
these  and  other  accounts,  it  would  be  futile  to  deny  the  fact 
that  a  large  number  of  persons,  some  of  them  suffering  from 
grave  disorders,  which  had  resisted  all  the  ordinary  means  of 
cure,  did  find  substantial  and  frequently  permanent  relief  at 
the  hands  of  Mesmer  and  his  colleagues.  To  whatever  cause 
we  may  ascribe  the  results,  the  results  themselves  are  certainly 
of  the  highest  importance.  The  patients  are  almost  unani- 
mous  in   rejecting,   some    with   delicate    irony,   some   with 


HEALING   BY  FLUID  23 

emphatically  expressed  contempt,  the  suggestion  that  the 
cures  were  due  to  imagination,  and  in  attributing  the  results 
to  the  magnetic  fluid  directed  by  the  rod  or  finger  of  the 
operating  physician,  and  many  curious  proofs  are  offered  of 
the  reaHty  of  the  agency. 

As  said,  most  of  the  accounts  relate  to  the  years  1 782-1 784, 
and,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  the  first  three  or 
four  years  of  Animal  Magnetism,  and  whatever  may  have 
been  the  case  at  this  time  in  Mesmer's  own  practice,  it  would 
seem  that  the  crisis  at  this  time  played  a  quite  subordinate 
part  in  Deslon's  treatment.  Of  the  1 1 5  cases  here  considered, 
eleven  only,  all  women,  are  recorded  as  having  experienced 
the  crisis.  Of  the  remainder,  a  considerable  minority  expe- 
rienced no  effect  from  the  treatment  beyond  that  produced 
upon  their  health. 

The  state  of  induced  somnambulism — the  eponymous  fact 
of  modern  hypnotism — which  was  to  play  so  large  a  part  in 
the  subsequent  history  of  Animal  Magnetism,  was  observed 
for  the  first  time  in  1784,  the  year  in  which  these  records  were 
written,  by  Puysegur  at  Busancy.  But  his  account  of  the 
phenomenon  had  scarcely  penetrated  beyond  the  circle  of  his 
intimates  ;  and  it  is  not  until  the  following  year,  1785,  that 
somnambulism  became  a  common  feature  of  the  magnetic 
treatment.  In  the  present  records  the  treatment  is  said  in 
a  few  instances  to  have  induced  sleep,  which  the  observers  do 
not  appear  to  have  distinguished  from  ordinary  sleep.  In 
many  cases  a  marked  tendency  to  drowsiness  was  observed. 

But  the  majority  record  certain  physical  symptoms  which 
were  held  to  indicate  the  actual  operation  of  the  fluid.  Of 
these  physical  symptoms  the  most  constant  are  a  feeling  of 
agreeable  warmth — occasionally  of  coldness — following  the 
touch  or  direction  of  the  operator's  finger.  This  would  often 
be  accompanied  or  succeeded  by  shivering,  or  other  feelings 
vaguely  described  as  "  an  agitation  of  the  blood,"  "  fermenta- 
tion of  humours,"  &c.  Frequently  there  would  be  a  tickling 
or  pricking  in  the  part  affected.  This  is  specially  noticed  in 
cases  of  diseased  eyes.  In  one  case  of  a  "weeping"  eye  the 
weeping  ceased  during  the  process  of  magnetisation.     The 


24     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

pricking  or  tickling  of  the  diseased  part  frequently  increased 
to  positive  pain,  in  accordance  with  the  belief  that  a  painful 
crisis  was  in  most  cases  necessary  to  the  cure  of  the  malady. 
We  have  seen,  in  a  case  already  quoted,  that  Dr.  Patillon 
entreated  one  of  his  patients  to  endure  the  pain  a  little  longer, 
in  order  not  to  interfere  with  the  cure.  Many  of  the  patients 
explain  that  the  first  effect  of  the  magnetic  treatment  was  to 
increase  their  pains  and  oppress  still  further  the  laboured 
breathing ;  in  one  case  total  blindness  overtook  the  diseased 
eye  as  a  preliminary  to  cure.  Two  of  the  patients  were  un- 
aware that  their  troubles  were  due  to  congested  spleen,  until 
Deslon's  apocalyptic  finger  made  them  feel  severe  pain  in 
that  organ,  painless  before.  One  witness  found  that  Animal 
Magnetism  renewed  the  pain  of  a  sprained  thumb,  healed 
many  years  ago.  M.  Quinquet  remarks  that  the  operating 
physician  seemed,  as  if  by  enchantment,  to  make  the  pain 
follow  in  obedience  to  his  healing  touch  from  one  part  of  the 
body  to  another  (p.  66).  The  gradual  descent  of  the  pain 
recorded  by  Dr.  Patillon  in  one  of  his  cases  is  described  by 
two  or  three  other  witnesses.  The  descent  of  the  pain  from 
the  head  or  other  parts  to  the  extremities,  as  a  preliminary  to 
its  final  expulsion  from  the  body,  was,  it  may  be  pointed  out, 
a  marked  feature  in  the  treatment  pursued  by  the  spiritualist 
healers,  Valentine  Greatrakes  and  J.  J.  Gassner. 

The  actual  impact  of  the  fluid  is  claimed  to  have  been  felt 
in  some  cases.  M.  Rossi  (p.  57)  records  that  after  having 
waited  for  some  months  in  vain,  experiencing  nothing  beyond 
the  improvement  in  his  health,  he  at  last  felt  a  subtle  fluid 
pour  from  the  iron  rod  and  fall  upon  his  face.  The  Marquis 
de  Chateaurenaud  testifies  that,  when  magnetised  by  a 
physician  without  his  knowledge,  he  first  felt  an  oppression 
in  the  head  and  then  fainted.  The  Countess  de  la  Saumes 
gives  an  interesting  account  of  her  first  interview  with 
Deslon.  She  was  brought  to  his  consulting-room  by  her 
father. 

"  In  talking  to  him  of  my  symptoms  I  looked  upon  him  as  a  physician, 
and  hadn't  the  least  suspicion  that  he  was  magnetising  me.  He  asked 
permission  to  touch  an  '  obstruction '  in  my  liver,  which  was  very  sensi- 


HEALING   BY   FLUID  25 

tive.  After  he  had  held  his  hand  for  a  few  minutes  on  my  side,  I  was 
on  the  point  of  fainting.  I  did  not  know  to  what  to  attribute  my  feel- 
ing, but  supposed  that  M.  Deslon  was  pressing  too  hard.  I  asked  him 
to  withdraw  his  hand.  A  moment  later  he  directed  his  finger  towards 
me.    I  experienced  the  same  sensation,  coupled  with  extreme  heat." 

Her  friends  then  told  her  who  M.  Deslon  was  (she  was 
apparently  up  to  this  point  ignorant  of  his  identity),  and 
explained  to  her  that  she  was  being  magnetised.  She  was 
much  astonished  (p.  73). 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mesmer  claimed  for  Animal  Magnetism 
not  simply  a  healing  influence,  but  a  direct  physical  effect 
upon  the  human  body.  According  to  his  theory  the 
"  Magnetiser  "  wielded  a  subtle  fluid,  akin  to,  yet  distinguish- 
able from,  the  other  subtle  fluids — electricity,  magnetism, 
vital  heat,  &c. — with  which  the  science  of  the  day  was 
acquainted.  Before  proceeding  to  treat  of  Mesmer's  later 
life  and  the  reception  which  he  met  with  at  the  hands  of 
the  medical  faculty  and  the  scientific  authorities  generally,  it 
will  be  convenient  to  set  forth  the  pedigree  of  the  new-born 
doctrine  of  Animal  Magnetism,  and  to  glance  lariefly  at  some 
other  circumstances  which  had  their  influence  in  shaping  his 
career.  j 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  MAGNETIC  SYSTEM 

The  Faith-healers — Mesmer's  debt  to  Gassner — Sympathetic  or 
Magnetic  medicine — Sir  Kcnelm  Dij^by's  Weapon  Salve,  and  his  expla- 
nation of  its  virtues — Paracelsus  on  Mummy  and  the  Mngius  Mkrocosmi 
— Van  Helmont's  account  of  the  Sympatlietic  system  :  further  developed 
by  Fludd  and  Maxwell — Mesmer's  propositions  :  his  doctrine  wholly 
derived  from  his  predecessors,  but  with  a  difference. 

A  DEMONSTRATION  of  the  power  of  healing  with- 
out drugs  or  processes  of  surgery  was  no  new  thing 
even  in  eighteenth-century  Paris.  In  all  ages  and 
in  all  countries  there  have  been  persons  who,  living,  have 
claimed  such  power  for  themselves,  or  have  been  credited 
with  such  power  after  death  by  their  worshippers.  But  such 
cures  had  before  the  time  of  Mesmer  been  attributed 
generally  to  some  peculiar  sanctity  in  the  healer,  allied  with 
peculiar  strength  of  faith  in  the  sufferer.  Often  the  diseases 
themselves  had  been  ascribed  to  the  action  of  demons.  Even 
in  the  Sympathetic  or  Magnetic  system  of  medicine  the 
process  of  healing  was  considered  primarily  as  a  spiritual 
affair.  It  was  still  to  the  Eternal  Creative  Spirit  of  the 
universe  that  Fludd  and  Maxwell  ascribed  the  cure  of 
wounds  and  diseases. 

Mesmer  was  the  first  to  rationalise  the  process  and  explain 
it  as  wholly  due  to  the  operation  of  an  indifferent  mechanical 
force.  He  was  also  the  first  who,  without  claiming  peculiar 
sanctity  for  himself,  or  avowedly  exacting  faith  from  his 
patient,  was  able  to  heal  as  effectually  and  on  at  least  as 
large  a  scale  as  any  saint  or  inspired  healer  who  had  gone 


THE   MAGNETIC   SYSTEM  27 

before.  There  had,  in  fact,  within  the  hundred  years  which 
immediately  preceded  the  commencement  of  Mesmer's 
career,  been  three  remarkable  exhibitions  of  healing  in  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Germany  respectively.  To  Mesmer  and 
his  contemporaries  Valentine  Greatrakes  was  probably  little 
more  than  a  name.  But  amongst  Mesmer's  older  patients 
there  may  have  been  some  who  had  been  eye-witnesses  of 
the  cures  which  took  place  round  the  tomb  of  the  Jansenist 
Deacon  Paris  in  173 1,  and  to  all  they  would  probobly  be 
familiar  by  report.  To  the  most  recent  of  these  healers,  the 
Suabian  priest  J.  J.  Gassner,  Mesmer  probably  owed  many 
features  ol  his'practice.  THe  five  or  six  years  ending  with 
1777 — when  he  was  forced  by  ecclesiastical  interdict  and 
ImperiaT  decree  to  quit  Ratisbon — were  those  in  which 
Gassner  reached  the  zenith  of  his  fame.  During  these  years 
he  resided  chiefly  at  Ratisbon  ;  but  he  travelled  about  and 
visited  many  towns  in  Bavaria,  healing  by  his  word  and 
touch.  Mesrner,as  already  said,  prior  to  his  arrival  in  Paris 
in  1778,  had  for  some  years  journeyed  about  Europe,  amongst 
other  countries  in  Suabia  and  Bavaria.  If  he  did  not  actually 
meet  Gassner — and  it  is  stated  that  he  did — he  must  have 
heard  of  his  fame,  and'  been  conversant  with  his  methods  of 
operation.  A  noticeable  point  in  Gassner's  treatment  was 
that,  as  a  preliminary  to  undertaking  a  cure,  he  would  cause 
to  be  reproduced  in  the  patient  the  pains  and  other  symptoms 
of  the  disease.  The  exorcism  by  which  he  sought  to  expel 
the  demon  (to  whose  presence  in  the  patient  he  attributed 
the  disease)  generally  produced  strong  convulsions ;  and  the 
cure  commenced  only  when  they  were  calmed.  Again, 
Gassner  constantly  chased  the  pain  from  one  part  of  the 
body  to  another,  finally  chasing  it  out,  by  his  command,  from 
the  fingers  or  toes.  All  these  features  are  characteristic  of 
Mesmer's  early  treatment,  though,  as  we  shall  see,  they  soon 
disappeared  in  the  practice  of  his  successors. 

But  if  Mesmer  seems  to  have  borrowed  from  the  Faith- 
healers  some  of  his  practical  methods  and,  what  was  of  more 
importance,  the  self-confidence  essential  to  success,  he  un- 
questionably found  his  philosophy  ready-made. 


28     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

To  most  English  readers,  no  doubt,  the  Sympathetic  or 
Magnetic  system  is  best  known  through  the  writings  of  the 
ingenious  and  versatile  Sir  Kenelm  Digby.  Digby  was 
by  occupation  privateer  and  philosopher,  in  religion  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  by  turn  ;  himself  the  son  of  a  man  who  had 
been  executed  for  high  treason  to  his  sovereign,  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  successors  of  that  sovereign  during  his  exile, 
and  became  the  Chancellor  of  the  Queen,  Henrietta  Maria. 
He  was  one  of  the  earliest  members  of  the  Royal  Society, 
and,  according  to  his  contemporary,  Evelyn,  "  an  arrant 
mountebank."  In  a  lecture  delivered  in  Montpellier  he  gives 
an  account  of  his  powder  of  sympathy  and  of  the  remarkable 
cures  effected  by  it.^  One  of  Digby's  acquaintances,  James 
Howell,  author  of  the  well-known  Letters,  had  been  wounded 
in  the  hand  in  the  course  of  parting  two  friends  who  were 
about  to  fight  a  duel.  Four  or  five  days  later  the  wound 
showed  serious  symptoms.  Howell  asked  Digby  whether  he 
could  do  anything  for  him.  Digby  asked  for  something 
which  had  the  blood  of  the  wound  on  it,  and  Howell  sent  for 
the  garter  with  which  the  hand  had  first  been  bound  up. 
Digby  then  dissolved  some  powdered  vitriol  (the  powder  of 
sympathy)  in  a  basin  of  water,  and,  whilst  Howell's  back  was 
turned,  placed  the  garter  in  the  water.  Howell  suddenly 
exclaimed  that  he  felt  no  more  pain.  "  Methinks  that  a 
pleasing  kind  of  freshness,  as  it  were  a  wet  cold  napkin,  did 
spread  over  my  hand  which  hath  taken  away  the  inflamma- 
tion which  tormented  me  before."  Later  in  the  evening 
Digby  took  the  garter  out  of  the  water  and  dried  it  before 
the  fire.  Presently  came  Howell's  servant  running  to  say 
that  his  master's  hand  was  much  worse — "  the  heat  was  such 
as  if  his  hand  were  between  coals  of  fire."  Digby  replaced 
the  bandage  in  the  water,  and  the  servant  on  his  return 
found  his  master  free  from  pain.  The  wound  was  entirely 
healed  in  five  or  six  days.  It  should  be  pointed  out  that 
this  is  Digby's  own  account  of  the  matter ;  that  we  have  no 
evidence  beyond  his  word  for  the  cure ;    and   that   a  con- 

'  A  Late  Discourse  ...  by  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  translated  from  the 
Latin  by  R.  White  (London,  1658). 


THE   MAGNETIC   SYSTEM  29 

temporary  calls  him  "the  very  Pliny  of  our  age  for 
lying."! 

However,  the  incident,  whether  real  or  fictitious,  will  serve 
to  illustrate  the  theory.  Briefly,  Digby's  explanation  of  the 
matter  is  something  of  this  kind.  All  bodies  consist  of 
infinitely  divisible  particles,  which  are  constantly  flying  off 
and  travelling  through  the  air,  as  we  may  perceive  in  the 
case  of  musk  and  other  odorous  substances.  The  chief 
agent  in  their  disintegration  and  conveyance  is  light,  which 
is  always  darting  and  bounding  about  like  a  tennis  ball,  and  is 
constantly  loosening  the  surface  of  the  bodies  on  which  it  falls 
and  carrying  away  with  it  some  of  the  loosened  particles. 
The  wind  is  nothing  else  than  the  rush  of  these  small 
particles  loosened  from  their  parent  bodies  by  the  action 
of  the  sun  :  Digby  had  himself  seen  a  wind  thus  born  in 
an  Alpine  pass  at  sunrise.  Now,  these  flying  particles  are 
subject  to  certain  laws  of  attraction.  Like  attracts  like,  as 
we  see  that  fire  and  all  hot  bodies  attract  air.  The  greater 
attracts  the  less  ;  so  fire  draws  out  the  pain  from  a  burn  ;  so 
the  body,  being  the  greater,  attracts  to  itself  the  blood  spilt 
by  the  sword.  And  herein  enters  the  final  principle  :  that 
the  body  attracts  not  only  its  own  proper  particles,  but  any 
particles  conjoined  with  them.  Hence  it  follows  that  the 
atoms  of  blood  on  the  bandage  or  sword,  transported  by 
the  air,  and  especially  by  the  sun's  rays,  drawing  with  them 
the  volatile  and  balsamic  spirits  of  vitriol,  are  attracted 
by  the  wound  and  take  up  their  proper  place  there,  bringing 
with  them  the  conjoined  balsamic  and  healing  spirits.  Con- 
versely, if  you  burn  cow's  milk  in  the  fire,  the  cow's 
udder  will  ulcerate. 

Digby  gives  some  other  illustrations  of  the  working  of  this 
principle  in  medicine,  rustic  lore,  and  the  minor  magical  arts. 
But,  after  all,  even  apart  from  the  dubious  testimony  of  his 
contemporaries,  Digby  is  not  our  best  guide  in  the  matter. 
He  did  not  belong  to  the  central  tradition  ;  he  was  simply 
an  amateur  playing  with  the  subject.  Paracelsus  is  commonly 
reputed  to  be  the  founder  of  the  Magnetic  system.  He  is 
'  Stubbes,  quoted  in  Chambers's  Encyclopadia,  under  "  Digby." 


30     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

said  to  have  employed  the  actual  magnet  in  medicine,  recom- 
mending its  use,  inasmuch  as  it  attracted  martial  humours,  in 
fluxes,  inflammatory  diseases,  hysteria,  and  epilepsy.  But 
for  the  most  part  Paracelsus  applies  the  term  "  magnetic,"  by 
a  metaphor, to  all  action  at  a  distance  real  or  presumed,  between 
bodies  of  all  kinds  on  our  earth.  In  medicine  the  principal 
mediator  of  this  action  is  mummy.  Of  mummy  there  are 
various  kinds,  but  the  most  precious  is  the  moss  which  grows 
on  the  skull  of  the  criminal  hanging' on  the  gallows: — 

"For  from  such  there  is  a  gentle  siccation  that  expungeth  the  watery 
humour,  without  destroying  the  oylc  and  spiriluall,  which  is  cherished 
by  the  heavenly  Luminaries  and  strengthened  continually  by  the  afflu- 
ence and  appulses  of  the  celestiall  Spirits,  whence  it  may  properly  be 
called  by  the  name  of  Constellated  or  Celestiall  Mumie."' 

In  places  not  sufiiciently  favoured  with  criminals  and 
gibbets  a  scarcely  less  efficient  mummy  might  be  constructed 
at  small  expense  from  the  blood,  hair,  nail-clippings,  and  the 
waste  products  generally  of  the  human  body.  This  is  the 
true  ATagnes  Microcosmi,  and  rightly  used  is  competent  for 
the  cure  of  all  diseases.  Mummy  so  prepared  from  the  living 
body  might  be  given  to  an  animal  to  eat,  and  the  disease  of 
the  original  owner  so  transferred  to  the  unoffending  dog  or 
pig,  even  as  the  leprosy  of  Naaman  the  Syrian  passed  over 
and  was  transplanted  into  Gehazi.  Or,  better  still,  let  the 
mummy  of  the  sick  person  be  mixed  with  earth,  and  place  in 
the  earth  so  prepared  seeds  or  plants  bearing  the  "  signature  " 
of  the  disease,  or  of  the  part  affected,  and  as  the  plant  grows 
it  will  suck  up  the  mummial  spirits  and  the  sick  man  will  be 
cured.  If  the  disease  be  jaundice,  you  should  sow  linseed  or 
hempseed;  if  pleurisy,  plant  St.  John's  wort  ;  if  therebeoppila- 
tions  of  the  liver,  take  rue,  liver  wort,  or  maidenhair  ;  if  of  the 
lungs,  take  nettles,  vernacle,  or  lung  wort;  if  of  the  spleen, 
stone  wort  or  germander. 

Paracelsus's  writings  are,  however,  unsystematic,  and   his 

'  Mcdicina  Diasiaiica,  or  Sympathdicall  Mumie  .  .  .  Abstracted  from 
the  works  of  Dr.  Theophr.  Paracelsus  by  Andrea  Tcntzelius,  translated 
by  F.  Parkhurst  (London,  1653). 


THE   MAGNETIC   SYSTEM  31 

prescriptions  are,  no  doubt  by  design,  obscure.  The  clearest 
authoritative  exposition  of  the  Magnetic  system  was  given 
two  or  three  generations  after  the  founder  by  Van  Helmont. 
One  Goclenius,  a  professor  of  medicine  at  Marpurg,  had,  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  published  as  his  inaugural  thesis 
a  treatise  on  the  Weapon  Salve  {De  unguento  armaiid).  To 
this  a  Jesuit  Father  named  Robert!  had  replied  in  A  Short 
Anatomy  of  Goclenius  Treatise  on  the  Magnetic  Cure  of 
Wounds.  Goclenius,  waxing  warmer,  countered  this  attack 
with  The  Articulation  of  the  Magnetic  Philosophy,  Contrasted 
with  the  Miserable  Anatomy  of  fohn  Roberti.^  Roberti  re- 
torted with  a  final  treatise  entitled  Gocleniiis  Convicted  out 
of  his  own  Mouth,  or  the  Downfall  of  the  Magnetic  Cure 
and  the  Weapon  Salve?  At  this  stage  the  dispute  was 
referred  to  Van  Helmont,  one  of  the  most  famous  physicians 
and  chemists  of  the  day.  Van  Helmont  took  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  to  give  his  own  interpretation  of  the  Magnetic 
philosophy.  He  begins  by  pointing  out  that  Roberti  is 
clearly  in  the  wrong.  The  Jesuit  called  all  these  things 
diabolical  only  because  he  couldn't  understand  them.  But 
"  whosoever  attributes  a  natural  effect,  so  created  by  God  .  . 
so  bestowed  on  the  creatures,  unto  the  Devil,  he  estrangeth 
the  honour  due  to  the  Creator."  3  Let  the  divine  inquire 
concerning  God,  but  leave  it  to  the  naturalist  to  make 
inquiries  concerning  nature.  But  if  Roberti  was  in  the 
wrong,  Goclenius  cannot  be  said  to  be  wholly  in  the  right. 
He  has  proved  himself  an  embarrassed  and  indiscreet 
champion.  He  has  confounded  sympathy  with  witchcraft, 
and  both  with  i\Iagnetism,  not  understanding  that  they  are 
diverse  manifestations  of  the  same  power.  Further,  mis- 
interpreting Paracelsus,  in  his  treatment  of  the  Weapon 
Salve  he  has  confused  the  two  cases,  when  the  weapon  is 
bloodied  and  when  it  is  not.     In  the  former  case  a  sympa- 

'  Synaithrosis  Magnetica,  opposita  infansice  Anatomice  JohannisRoberii : 
Theatrum  Sympatheticiim  (Nuremberg,  1672),  p.  237. 

^  Goclenius  Heautonthnorumenos,  id  est  cuvalionis  magneliccs  el unguenti 
armarii  riiina,  id.  p.  309. 

Van  Helmont's  Workes,  translated  (London,  1664),  p.  793. 


32     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

thetic  unguent  will  suffice.  But  in  the  second  we  need  a 
much  more  powerful  treatment — to  wit,  the  magnetic  armary, 
of  which  the  fat  of  bulls  is  the  chief  ingredient.  For  the  bull 
dies  exulting  in  revenge  more  than  any  other  animal ;  and 
hence  his  fat  yields  a  more  violent,  efficacious,  and  Taurine 
impression.  Again,  Goclenius  has  blundered  badly  in  his 
account  of  usnea,  the  moss  from  the  skull  of  a  criminal.  He 
attributes  its  special  virtues  to  the  fact  that  in  the  process  of 
strangling  the  vital  spirits  enter  the  skull.  But  practical 
experience,  says  Van  Helmont,  shows  that  moss  from  the 
skull  of  a  man  broken  on  the  wheel  or  suffering  any  other 
violent  death  is  equally  efficacious.  In  fact,  usnca,  rightly 
named  the  seminal  offspring  of  Heaven,  consists  as  it  were  in 
the  excretions  and  superfluities  of  the  stars,  and  derives  its 
magnetism  at  once  from  the  mummial  virtue  of  the  bones 
and  from  "  the  circular  Tract  of  the  Heavenly  Bodies." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Van  Helmont  conceives  of  the 
Magnetic  or  Sympathetic  healing  as  of  a  natural  process. 
It  needs  no  rites  or  ceremonies;  "it  doth  not  so  much  as 
fore-require  the  Imagination,  Confidence,  or  Belief,  nor  Leave 
to  be  required  from  the  wounded  party."  In  controverting 
Roberti,  indeed,  he  ex])ressly  says  that  "it  is  not  suitable  to 
the  customs  of  Naturalists  to  dispute  from  naked  authorities  ; 
they  rely  upon  experience."  As  fair  samples  of  the  facts  of 
experience  which  were  relied  upon  by  the  Magnetists  to 
prove  the  existence  of  action  at  a  distance  we  may  quote 
the  following.  Lightning  will  not  strike  a  house  or  a  stable 
which  has  been  smeared  with  the  fat  of  a  sea-calf ;  "  the 
experience  is  trivial  and  frequent."  If  a  sapphire  be  rubbed 
upon  a  carbuncle  {i.e.,  a  boil,  not  the  jewel  of  that  name)  and 
then  removed  to  a  distance  from  the  patient,  it  will  suck  the 
poison  from  the  swelling.  If  the  leaves  of  asarabacca  are 
plucked  upwards  they  will  cause  the  patient  to  vomit,  if 
downwards  they  will  purge  him.  The  eyes  of  the  basilisk 
or  catablepa  can  kill  a  man  at  a  distance  of  i,ooo  yards 
and  more.  Eagles  are  attracted  to  the  carcass,  as  indicated 
in  the  Scriptures,  instantaneously.  It  cannot  be  by  sight  or 
smell,  it  must  therefore  be  by  magnetic  power.     Again,  he 


THE   MAGNETIC   SYSTEM  33 

tells  a  curious  tale — since  repeated  with  local  variations  by- 
each  of  his  successors — of  a  certain  rich  merchant  of  Brussels 
who  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  nose.  At  length  he  found 
in  Italy  a  poor  man,  a  porter,  who  was  willing  to  part  with 
some  of  his  flesh  to  form  a  new  nose.  But  thirteen  months 
later  the  Belgian,  having  then  returned  to  his  own  country, 
found  his  nose  putrefying,  and,  in  effect,  it  dropped  off.  He 
afterwards  discovered  that  at  that  exact  date  the  Italian 
porter  had  died.  The  borrowed  flesh  had  shared  in  the 
corruption  of  its  original  body,  hundreds  of  miles  away. 

All  these  observations  are  cited  by  Van  Helmont.  From 
Digby  we  learn  in  addition  that  if  you  hold  a  gold  coin  in 
your  mouth,  it  will  be  discoloured  if  you  put  your  big  toe 
into  a  vessel  of  mercury  ;  and  that  you  may  wash  your  hands 
in  a  silver  basin  by  collecting  moonbeams  in  it.^  Tentzelius 
adds  that  when  vines  shoot  forth  their  branches  old  wines 
work  anew  in  the  vessel  and  their  lees  rise  and  are  troubled  ; 
that  a  venison  pasty  grows  rank  at  the  rutting  season,  and 
sweetens  later  ;  that  the  fat  and  flesh  of  a  bear  kept  in  a 
closed  trough  increases  at  the  same  time  "  when  as  the  Beares 
lying  down  in  their  den  in  the  Winter  time  do  wax  fat."  ^ 

Now,  all  these  facts,  says  Van  Helmont,  and  others  like 
them,  prove  an  influence  of  sublunaries  on  each  other  like  the 
influence  of  the  magnet  on  the  iron  ;  and  this  influence  in  all 
cases  alike  is  called  Magnetism.  The  influence  is  not  of  a 
corporeal  nature.  The  light  of  the  sun,  the  influence  of 
the  heavens,  the  sight  of  the  basilisk,  the  stupefaction  darting 
forth  of  the  cramp-fish,  the  attraction  of  the  magnet  itself,  are 
dispersed  upon  the  object  at  a  distance,  "  not  by  communion 
of  a  substantial  evaporation,  but  by  the  medium  of  an  unper- 
ceivable  Light."  The  exact  nature  of  the  communication  it 
is  not  easy  to  understand.  The  influence  of  the  stars  is,  of 
course,  matter  of  common  knowledtre  : — 


"Ye  grant  that  material  Nature  doth  dail)'  draw  down  Forces  by  its 
magnetism  from  the  superiour  Orbs  .  .  .  and  that  the  Heavens  do  in 


*  Op.  ciL,  pp.  43  and  iii.  '  Medicina  Diastaiica,  pp.  21,  seqq. 


34     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

exchange  invisibly  allure  something  from  the  inferiour  bodies,  that 
there  may  be  a  free  and  mutual  passage  and  a  harmonious  concord  of 
the  members  with  the  whole  universe." 

Nay,  all  particular  created  beings  have  their  own  heaven 
within  them,  or,  as  Fludd  put  it  later,  "  Man  containcth  in 
himself  no  otherwise  his  heavens,  circles,  poles,  and  stars  than 
the  great  world  doth."  ^  And  these  particular  heavens  do 
at  ordinary  times  govern  themselves  according  to  the  har- 
mony of  the  superior  tributary  motion.  But  sick  persons 
have  by  the  persuasion  of  their  proper  heaven  wandered  from 
the  motion  of  the  universal  heaven.  And  because  of  this 
want  of  harmony  they  feel  more  keenly  than  those  in  health 
the  changes  of  the  seasons  and  all  the  celestial  motions. 

And  that  brings  us  to  the  heart  of  the  mystery.  Man  was 
originally  made  in  the  likeness  of  God,  and  able,  like  God,  to 
create  and  effect  all  things  per  nutuvi,  by  his  mere  beck  or 
will.  But  all  this  magical  power  now  "  sleeps,  since  the 
knowledge  of  the  apple  was  eaten."  It  can,  however,  be 
roused  by  various  means.  In  some  Satan  can  excite  it  to 
action  and  by  his  diabolical  cunning  make  the  witch  believe 
that  the  power  comes  from  him,  which  is  really  the  witch's 
own.  For  if  the  witch  kills  a  man,  it  is  by  virtue  of  the 
magical  power  which  sleeps  in  us  all.  Again,  prayer  and 
fasting  will  overcome  the  drowsiness  of  the  flesh,  and  release 
the  "  nimble,  active,  heavenly  and  ready  power  towards  God." 
By  similar  means  there  may  be  induced  a  state  of  ecstasy,  as 
in  a  case  recorded  by  Martin  del  Rio,  which  Van  Helmont 
quotes — a  young  lad,  "transported  with  violent  cogitation  of 
seeing  his  mother,"  actually  succeeded  in  seeing  her  at  a 
distance,  and  gave  many  signs  of  his  true  presence  with  her. 

So,  again,  ill-health  or  corruption  may  release  this  seminal 
virtue.     Thus  when  a  wound  is  made, 

"  it  happens  that  the  blood  in  the  Wound  freshly  made,  by  reason  of 
the  said  foreign  quality  (the  entrance  of  the  air)  doth  now  enter  into 
the  beginning  of  some  kind  of  corruption  (which  blood,  being  also  then 


*  Mosaicall  Philosophy  (London,  1659),  p.  221. 


THE   MAGNETIC   SYSTEM  35 

received  on  the  Weapon  or  splinter  thereof,  is  besmeared  with  the 
magnetick  Unguent),  the  which  entrance  of  corruption  mediating,  the 
ecstatical  power  hirlcing  potentially  in  the  blood  is  brought  forth  into 
action,  which  power,  because  it  is  an  exiled  returner  unto  its  own 
body,  by  reason  of  the  hidden  Ecstasie,  hence  that  blood  bears  an 
individual  respect  unto  the  blood  of  its  whole  body.  Then  indeed  the 
magnet  or  attractive  faculty  is  busied  in  operating  in  the  Unguent ; 
and  through  the  mediation  of  the  ecstatical  power  (for  so  I  call  it  for 
want  of  an  Etymologie)  sucks  out  the  hurtful  quality  from  the  lips 
of  the  wound,  and  at  length  through  the  Mummial,  Balsamick  and 
attractive  virtue  contained  in  the  Unguent,  the  magnetism  is  perfect." 

The  Magnetic  philosophy  was  developed  and  systematised 
by  Robert  Fludd  in  his  Philosophia  Moysaica  (1637)  and  by 
the  Scotch  physician  Maxwell  in  his  treatise  De  Medicina 
Magnetica  (1679).  From  the  stars,  the  human  body  and 
from  all  substances  in  the  universe,  according  to  these  philo- 
sophers, there  radiate  beams  which  reciprocally  affect  all 
other  bodies.  But  the  influence  of  the  stars  is  original  and 
predominant. 

"Every  astrall  influence  in  the  Creature,"  says  Fludd,  "doth  by  a 
natural  inclination,  and  that  Sympathetically,  aspect  the  Star  or  celes- 
tiall  Fountain  from  which  it  did  spring  ;  and  likewise  the  Star  in  Heaven, 
by  a  paternal  respect,  doth  send  down  his  influence  to  feed  and  nourish 
his  like  filiall  fire  and  force  in  the  Creature  here  below." ' 

Again,  Maxwell  says  "  the  Stars  bind  the  vital  spirit  to 
the  proper  body  by  light  and  heat,  and  pour  it  into  the 
same  by  the  same  means."  2  Seeds  contain  a  more  liberal 
portion  of  the  vital  spirit  than  anything  else,  and  in  their 
growth  they  attract  more  and  more  in  its  descent  from  the 
heavens. 

The  later  philosophers  followed  Van  Helmont  in  conceiv- 
ing of  these  rays  as  being,  like  light  itself,  of  inconceivable 
tenuity.3     But  the  rays  themselves  were  only  the  vehicle  of 

*  Mosaicall  Philosophy  (1659),  p.  223. 

'  Stellae  vitalem  spiritum  corpori  disposito  ligant  per  lucem  et  calorem, 
eidemque  iisdem  mediis  infundunt." 

3  Maxwell,  however,  says,  "  ab  omni  corpore  radii  corporales  fluunt," 
but  corporales  does  not  apparently  here  mean  "  material." 


36     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

the  indwelling  spirit,  which  directed  all  their  operations  and 
gave  them  their  virtue.     Thus  Fludd  : — 

"  The  Etheriall  Sperm  or  Astralicall  influences  are  of  a  far  subtiler 
condition  than  is  the  vehicle  of  visible  light.  Yea,  verily  they  are  so 
thin,  so  mobile,  so  penetrating,  and  so  lively  .  .  .  that  they  continu- 
ally penetrate  even  unto  the  center  or  universal  bosom  of  the  earth, 
where  they  generate  metals  of  sundry  kinds,  as  the  antient  philosophers 
do  justifie.  ...  It  is  not  the  starry  light  which  pcnctrateth  so  deeply, 
or  operateth  so  universally,  but  the  Eternal  Centrall  Spirit." 

But  if  a  hard  mineral  stone,  immovable  and  stupid,  can  act 
on  other  bodies  at  a  distance,  much  more  man's  heavenly 
spirit,  being  more  subtle  than  the  loadstone,  can  send  forth 
"  the  astralicall  beams  of  his  vertue  "  even  unto  the  throne  of 
Divinity.  It  was  a  necessary  consequence  of  this  doctrine 
that,  in  Maxwell's  words,  he  who  had  learnt  to  strengthen 
his  individual  spirit  by  means  of  the  universal  spirit,  could 
prolong  his  life  to  an  indefinite  time  {in  cevuni)  unless  the 
stars  were  unfavourable.  Again,  having  learnt  how  to 
employ  the  universal  spirit,  the  physician  could  stay  all 
manner  of  corruption  in  his  patient's  body,  and  give  to  the 
individual  spirit  dominion  over  disease.^  Again,  by  like 
means  the  physician  might  affect  his  patient  "  at  any  reason- 
able but  limited  and  unknown  distance."    Thus  Paracelsus  : — 

"By  the  magic  power  of  the  will  a  person  on  this  side  of  the  ocean 
may  make  a  person  on  the  other  side  hear  what  is  said  on  this  side 
.  .  .  the  ethereal  body  of  a  man  may  know  what  another  man  thinks 
at  a  distance  of  loo  miles  or  more."" 

Fludd  expresses  the  same  idea  more  generally  : — 

"  How,  by  relation  of  natural!  things  unto  one  another,  they  do,  after 
a  corporall  contact  or  touch  is  made  between  them,  operate  wonder- 
fully, and  that  by  a  Magneticall  concent  and  Spirituall  continuity  .  .  . 
by  a  mutuall  operation  at  an  unknown  distance."  3 

'  Op,  cit.,  p.  92,  cf.  p.  94.  "  Medicamentum  universale  nihil  aliud  est 
quam  spiritus  vitalis  in  subjectum  debitum  multiplicatus." 

"  Pliilosoph.,  Sag.  i.  cap.  60.  Quoted  by  Hartmann,  Life  of  Theo- 
phrastus  Bombastes,  p.  296. 

3  Op.  cit.,  p.  252. 


THE   MAGNETIC   SYSTEM  37 

And  Maxwell  definitely  applies  the  principle  to  the  relation 
between  physician  and  patient  : — 

"  Qui  spiritual  vitalem  particularem  efficere  novit,  corpus,  cujus 
spirilus  est,  curare  potest  ad  quamcunque  distantiam,  implorata  spiritus 
universalis  ope."  ' 

The  later  interpreters  laid  more  stress  than  Paracelsus  and 
Van  Helmont  had  done  upon  the  dual  and  reciprocal  action 
of  the  forces  directing  the  universe.  The  attractive  and 
repulsive  action  of  the  magnet  corresponded  to  the  alterna- 
tion of  light  and  darkness,  heat  and  cold,  the  flux  and  reflux 
of  the  tides,  centrifugal  and  centripetal  action,  the  mystery 
of  the  sexes.  Man  himself  was  a  magnet  and  contained  his 
own  poles  or  points  of  reciprocal  attraction  and  repulsion. 
Let  a  man  be  placed,  says  Fludd,  with  his  face  to  the  east : 
his  right  hand  will  then  correspond  with  the  earth's  right  or 
southern  pole,  and  the  cold,  dark  spleen  will  be  turned  to  the 
cold,  dark  north.  But  Fludd's  view  on  this  point  was  not 
universally  accepted,  and  philosophers,  while  agreeing  that 
the  human  body  was  in  the  likeness  of  a  magnet,  differed  as 
to  the  exact  disposition  of  the  poles. 

If  we  compare  Fludd's  explanation  of  the  magnetic  cure 
of  wounds  with  the  passage  already  quoted  from  Van  Hel- 
mont, we  shall  see  more  clearly  how  the  doctrine  had 
developed. 

"  If,  after  the  wound  is  made,  a  portion  of  the  wound's  externall 
blood,  with  his  inward  spirits,  or  the  internall  spirits  oncly,  that  have 
penetrated  into  the  weapon,  or  any  other  thing  which  have  searched 
the  depth  of  the  wound,  be  conveyed  from  the  wound  at  any  reason- 
able but  unUmited  and  unknown  distance,  unto  an  Oyntment,  whose 
property  is  Balsamick,  and  agreeing  specifically  with  the  nature  of 
the  creature  so  wounded,  the  Oyntment  so  animated  by  those  spirits 
will  become  forthwith  magneticall,  and  apply  with  a  magneticall 
aspect  and  regard  unto  those  beamy  Spirits  which  stream  forth 
invisibly  from  the  wound,  being  directed  thereto  by  the  Spiritual! 
bloody  spirits  in  the  weapon  or  other  thing  which  hath  received 
or  included  them  :  and  the  lively  and  southern  beams,  streaming 
and  flowing  from  the  wound,  will  with  the  northern  attraction  of  the 


Op.  cit.,  Aphorism  69. 


38     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Oyntment,  so  magnetically  animated,  concur  and  unite  themselves  with 
the  northern  and  congealed,  or  fixt,  bloody  spirits  contained  in  the 
oyntment,  and  stir  them  to  act  southernl}-,  that  is,  from  the  center  to 
the  circumference  ;  so  that  by  this  reciprocall  action,  union  or  con- 
tinuity, a  lively  southern  beam  will  act  and  revive  the  chill,  fixt  or 
northern  beams  which  do  animate  the  oyntment  with  a  magnelicall 
vertue,  and  quickened  spirits  of  the  oyntment,  animated  by  the  spirits 
of  them  both,  and  directed  by  the  spirits  which  were  first  transplanltcl 
into  it,  doth  impart  by  the  said  union  or  continuity  his  balsamick  and 
sanative  vertue  unto  the  spirits  in  the  wound,  being  first  magnetic:illy 
attracted,  and  they  afterwards  by  an  unseparable  harmony,  transfer  it 
back  into  the  wound.  And  tiiis  is  the  reason  of  that  Sympatheticall 
or  anti-patheticall  reference  and  respect,  which  is  by  experience 
observed  to  be  between  the  Oyntment  and  the  wound." 

But  however  their  explanations  of  the  process  may  differ, 
all  the  Magnetic  philosophers  were  apjrccd  that  if  the  wound 
were  carefully  washed  and  wrapped  up  in  clean  linen,  whilst 
the  weapon  which  did  the  mischief  was  suitably  anointed, 
the  wound  would  heal.  And  in  this,  curiously  enough,  they 
find  themselves  in  agreement  with  modern  science.  For  the 
treatment  prescribed  differs  little  from  that  followed  by  the 
surgeon  of  to-day — barring  the  anointing  of  the  sword. 

Mesmer's  own  statement  of  his  doctrine  is  contained  in 
a  series  of  twenty-seven  propositions  drawn  up  in  1779,  of 
which  the  following  may  be  quoted  : — 

1.  II  existe  une  influence  mutuelle  entre  les  corps  celestes,  la  terre  et 
les  corps  animes. 

2.  Un  fluide  universcllemcnt  repandu  et  continue  de  maniere  a  ne 
souffrir  aucun  vuide,  dont  la  subtilete  ne  pcrmet  aucune  comparaisnn, 
et  qui,  de  sa  nature,  est  susceptible  de  recevoir,  propager  et  communiquer 
toutes  les  impressions  du  mouvement,  est  le  moyen  de  cette  influence. 

3.  Cette  action  reciproque  est  soumise  a  des  loix  mechaniques,  in- 
connues  jusqu'a  present. 

4.  II  resulte  de  cette  action,  des  effets  alternatifs  qui  peuvent  etre 
consideres  comme  un  flux  et  reflux. 

6.  C'est  par  cette  operation  (la  plus  universelle  de  celles  que  la 
nature  nous  offre)  que  les  relations  d'activite  s'exercent  entre  les  corps 
celestes,  la  terre  et  ses  parties  constitutives. 

9,  II  se  manifeste,  particulierement  dans  le  corps  humain,  des  pro- 
prietes  analogues  a  celles  de  I'aimant ;  on  y  distingue  des  poles  egale- 
ment  divers  et  opposes  qui  peuvent  etre  communiques,  changes,  detruits 
et  renforces  ;  le  phenomene  meme  de  rinclinaison  y  est  observe. 


THE  MAGNETIC  SYSTEM  39 

10.  La  propriete  du  corps  animal  qui  le  rend  susceptible  de  I'influence 
des  corps  celestes  et  de  Taction  reciproque  de  ceux  qui  I'environnent, 
manifestce  par  son  analogic  avec  I'aimant,  m'a  determine  a  la  nommer 
Magnelisme  animal. 

14.  Son  action  a  lieu  a  une  distance  eloignee,  sans  le  secours  d'aucun 
corps  intermediaire. 

15.  Elle  est  augmentee  etreflechie  par  les  glaces  comme  la  lumiere. 

16.  Elle  est  communiquee,  propagee,  et  augmentee  par  le  son. 

21.  Ce  systeme  fournira  de  nouveaux  eclaircissements  sur  la  nature 
du  feu  et  de  la  lumiere,  ainsi  que  dans  la  theorie  de  I'attraction,  du  flux 
et  reflux  de  I'aimant  et  de  I'electricite. 

22.  II  fera  connoitre  que  I'aimant  et  I'electricite  artificielle,  n'ont 
a  regard  des  maladies,  que  des  proprietes  communes  avec  plusieurs  autres 
agents  que  la  nature  nous  offre  ;  et  que  s'il  est  resulte  quelques  effets 
utiles  de  I'administration  de  ceux-la,  ils  sont  dus  au  Magnetisme- 
animal. 

23.  On  reconnoitra  par  les  faits,  d'apres  les  regies  pratiques  que 
j'etablerai,  que  ce  principe  peut  guerir  immediatement  les  maladies  des 
ncrfs,  et  mediatement  les  autres. 

24.  Qu'avec  son  secours  le  medecin  est  eclaire  sur  I'usage  des  medica- 
ments ;  qu'il  perfectionne  leur  action,  et  qu'il  provoque  et  dirige  les 
crises  salutaires,  de  maniere  a  sen  rendre  le  maitre. 

The  reader  who  will  compare  Mesmer's  propositions  with 
the  account  above  given  of  the  Magnetic  system  will  see 
that  the  whole  of  the  Viennese  physician's  doctrine  is 
implicitly  contained  in  the  writings  of  his  predecessors.^ 
But  there  is  one  subtle  difference.  To  Van  Helmont  the 
Magnetic  system  is  still  primarily  a  spiritual  affair,  a  link 
between  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  Man  can  only  obtain 
a  complete  mastery  over  the  powers  which  sleep  in  his 
own  nature  by  assimilating  his  will  to  the  Divine  Will.  In 
the  writings  of  Maxwell  and  Fludd  greater  stress  is  laid 
upon  the  material  operations  of  the  fluid ;  the  theory  tends 
to  become  less  mystical  and  more  scientific.  But  neither 
quite  loses  sight  of  the  spiritual  aspect    of  the  matter.     It 

'  A  detailed  comparison  of  Mesmer's  ideas  with  those  of  earlier 
mystics,  including,  besides  those  mentioned  in  the  text,  Kircher, 
Borel,  and  others,  is  given  in  Thouret's  Recherches  et  doides  sur  le 
Magnelisme  animal  (Paris,  1784).  See  also  Bertrand,  Du  Magnelisme 
animal  en  France  (Paris,  1826),  pp.  13-18.  Nearly  every  item  in 
Mesmer's  statement  of  his  doctrine  can  be  paralleled  from  the 
writings  of  his  predecessors. 


40     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

is  not  the  starry  light,  says  Fludd,  "which  operateth  so 
universally,  but  the  Eternal  Centrall  Spirit."  And  Maxwell 
gives  an  even  more  emphatic  expression  to  the  Spiritualist 
view.     Thus  runs  his  first  Aphorism: — 

"The  world  is  quickened  by  the  ori.ainal  and  supreme  Mind, 
containing  in  itself  the  seminal  causes  of  all  tliinjis,  which  proceed- 
ing from  the  splendour  of  the  Ideas  in  the  original  Mini!,  are  as  it 
were  instruments  by  which  lliis  great  body  is  moved,  and  links  in 
the  golden  chain  of  Providence.' 

But  in  Mesmer's  exposition  this  spiritual  aspect  of  the 
doctrine  has  entirely  disappeared.  For  him  the  Magnetic 
system  is  purely  a  question  of  matter  and  motion.  So  far, 
no  doubt,  his  doctrine  was  better  adapted  to  catch  the  ears 
of  his  contemporaries.  The  Paris  of  the  Age  of  Reason— 
at  least,  that  part  of  it  which  was  not  versed  in  the  phjsical 
sciences — might  be  expected  to  believe  in  a  Universal  Fluid 
without  examining  too  closely  the  evidence  for  its  existence. 
l)ut  they  would  not  have  hearkened  so  gladly  to  a  revival 
of  the  scarcely  more  baseless  mysticism  of  the  previous 
century. 

'  "  Mundus  animatus  est  anima  prima  et  suprema  intellectuali,  in 
se  rationcs  rerun)  seminarias  possidente,  quae  a  splendorc  ideariim 
intellectus  primi  procedentes  sunt  quasi  instrumenta,  per  quae  corpus 
hoc  magnum  agitur,  el  sunt  quasi  nexus  catenae  aure:e  providentiae." 


i 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION 

Mesmcr's  relations  with  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  with  the 
Royal  Society  of  Medicine — Three  doctors  of  the  Faculty  inquire  into 
Mesmer's  treatment — Dcslon's  application  to  the  Faculty  on  Mesmer's 
belialf — De  Vauzesmcs'  speech — The  case  of  M.  Busson — Rejection 
of  Mesmer's  proposals,  and  ultimate  expulsion  of  Deslon  from  the 
Faculty — Mesmer  refuses  a  substantial  pension  from  the  Government 
— His  pupils  form  a  Society  of  Harmony — Berthollet's  letter — Two 
Commissions  of  Inquiry  appointed  by  Government — Their  Reports — 
What  they  saw  and  what  they  did  not  see — Report  of  De  Jussieu. 

IT  is  clear  that  when  Mesmer  came  to  Paris  in  February, 
1778,  the  reports  which  had  preceded  him  were  not  so 
universally  unfavourable  as  some  writers  would  have 
us  believe.  I  Even  if  to  the  medical  profession  generally 
he  was  an  impudent  charlatan,  driven  in  disgrace  from  the 
country  of  his  birth,  or  adoption,  that  opinion  was  by  no 
means  universal  amongst  men  of  enlightenment.  It  may 
be  admitted  that  the  crowd  of  fashionable  folk  who  thronged 
his  reception-rooms  almost  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival 

'  The  chief  authority  for  the  first  four  years  of  Mesmcr's  career  in 
Paris,  from  1778  to  1781,  is  his  Precis  hisiorique  des  Fails  rclaiifs  an 
Magnclisme  atiimal,  which  appeared  in  the  course  of  1781,  and  carries 
the  nanative  as  far  as  the  April  of  that  year.  The  account  is  well 
documented,  and  may,  no  doubt,  be  relied  upon  so  far  as  the  external 
facts  are  concerned.  Indeed,  the  authors  of  the  Histoire  academiquc 
(1841),  Burdin  and  Dubois,  have  based  their  account  upon  the  Precis, 
and  as  they  were  themselves  members  of  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Medicine,  at  whose  instance  the  history  was  undertaken,  they  were 
in  a  position  to  check  Mesmer's  statements,  at  least  as  regards  his 
relations  with  that  body. 

41 


42     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

counted  for  little.  But  his  claims  from  the  outset  found 
recognition  in  quarters  more  worthy  of  consideration. 
M.  Leroy,  Director  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  came  on 
several  occasions  to  examine  Mesmer's  methods  of  treat- 
ment, and  was  sufficiently  impressed  to  bring  the  matter 
before  a  meeting  of  the  Academy,  The  meeting,  the  exact 
date  of  which  is  not  given,  apparently  took  place  in  the 
spring  or  early  summer  of  1778.  According  to  Mesmer's 
statement  of  his  position,  it  was  not  so  much  a  new  method 
of  treating  disease,  but  a  new  physical  force  which  he  claimed 
to  have  discovered.  He  had,  he  tells  us,  no  intention  of 
practising  in  Paris,  and  only  undertook  to  effect  cures  at 
the  solicitation  of  the  numerous  patients  who  flocked  to  his 
consulting-rooms.  It  was  as  a  physicist  rather  than  as  a 
physician  that  he  asked  to  be  recogin'sed.  It  was  true  that 
the  newly  discovered  magnetic  fluid  had  proved  in  his  hands 
of  immense  benefit  in  therapeutics,  and  the  numerous  cures 
effected  by  the  treatment  were  no  doubt  calculated  to 
impress  the  vulgar ;  but  they  were  little  likely  to  convince 
the  experts.  "  Cette  espece  de  preuve,"  he  says,  "  paroit 
sans  replique ;  c'cst  une  erreur.  Rien  ne  prouve  demon- 
strativement  que  le  Mcdecin  ou  la  Mcdecine  gucrissent  les 
tnaladies."  ^ 

The  paper,  then,  which  Mesmer,  through  the  intervention  of 
M.  Leroy,  presented  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  contained, 
no  doubt,  a  statement  of  his  doctrine  of  a  Universal  Fluid  as 
set  forth  in  the  propositions  quoted  in  the  last  chapter.^ 
Such  a  belated  echo  of  mediaeval  mysticism,  even  when  it 
masqueraded  as  Science,  was  little  likely  to  impress  scientific 
Paris  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Academy 
before  which  the  last  of  the  alchemists  advertised  his  pre- 
tended discovery  included  amongst  its  members,  to  name  no 
others,  Lavoisier,  who  was  even  then  laying  the  foundations 
of   the   new  chemistry,  and    Benjamin    Franklin,   who   had 

"  Precis,  p.  37.  The  passage  was  later  quoted  in  Bailly's  Report  as 
a  justification  of  the  attitude  of  the  Commissioners. 

"  The  propositions  in  the  form  in  which  we  now  have  them  were 
first  pubUshed  in  Mesmer's  Memoire  sur  la  dccouvcrtc.  &c.  (1779). 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH    COMMISSION  43 

a  generation  before  played  a  similar  part  in  the  kindred 
science  of  electricity.  Mesmer's  vanity  was  wounded  because 
the  Academy  refused  to  listen  to  Leroy  and  suggested 
that  he  should  leave  Mesmer's  communication  lying  on 
the  table,  for  any  to  read  who  would.  His  vanity  was 
even  yet  more  seriously  hurt  when  at  the  close  of  the 
meeting  some  of  the  members  asked  to  see  a  demonstra- 
tion of  the  new  force.  Mesmer  stigmatised  the  request  as 
"childish" — the  epithet  proves  him  a  true  son  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  For  him,  no  doubt,  the  symmetry  and  sim- 
plicity of  his  theory  was  its  own  sufficient  proof.  But  he 
at    length    consented    to    magnetise    one    of    the    members, 

M.  A .     M.  A professed — apparently  in  mockery — to 

feel  thrills  in  his  hands  and  subtle  currents  coursing  along  his 
arms.  But  Mesmer  claims  that  he  succeeded  in  bringing  on 
an  attack  of  asthma  some  time  before  it  was  due,  and  subse- 
quently, after  blindfolding,  he  passed  his  finger  under  the 
subject's  nostrils,  and  by  "reversing  the  poles"  made  him 
smell  sulphur  or  not,  at  his  will.  A  similar  experiment,  he 
tells  us,  succeeded  with  a  glass  of  water. 

It  was  by  such  effects  as  these,  by  the  physical  sensations 
accompanying  the  treatment — by  the  transfer  of  a  pain  from 
head  to  stomach,  from  stomach  to  abdomen  and  back  again 
to  head — rather  than  by  cures  which  must  always  remain 
of  dubious  interpretation,  that  Mesmer  thought  to  establish 
his  vaunted  discovery. 

When  Leroy  and  his  colleagues  undertook  to  explain  all 
these  sensations  as  due  simply  to  imagination,  Mesmer  was 
confounded.  He  forgot  his  resolve  not  to  leave  his  great 
discovery  to  the  uncertain  arbitrament  of  the  consulting-room, 
his  reluctance  to  embroil  himself  with  the  medical  faculty, 
and  he  decided  against  his  better  judgment  to  offer  the  proofs 
demanded  of  him.  A  new  medical  society  had  recently  been 
founded  in  Paris — the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine.^  To  this 
body  had  been  entrusted  the  duty  of  licensing  patent  medi- 

'  Though  in  existence  for  some  time  previously,  the  new  body  was 
not  formally  constituted  by  letters  patent,  according  to  Mesmer  (p.  56), 
until  August,  1778. 


44     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

cines ;  and  they  naturally  conceived  that  it  was  within  their 
province  to  examine  into  a  new  method  of  treatment. 
Several  of  the  members — Mauduit,  Andrey,  Desperrieres, 
and  the  Abbe  Tessier— called  upon  Mesmer  and  persuaded 
him  to  submit  his  cases  for  examination.  It  was  arranpjed 
— according  to  Mcsmer's  version  of  the  agreement— that 
every  patient  who  was  to  be  made  the  subject  of  a  test 
should  be  examined,  before  his  treatment,  by  a  doctor  of 
the  Faculty,  not  necessarily  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society. 
In  conformity  with  this  arrangement  Mesmer  presented  to 
Messrs.   Mauduit  and  Andrey  a  young  girl,  the  demoiselle 

L ,  who  was  certified  by  several  physicians  and  surgeons 

to  be  suffering  from  epilepsy.  The  two  representatives  of 
the  Royal  Society,  not  satisfied  with  a  simple  inspection 
of  the  patient  and  the  certificates  offered,  some  from  obscure 
provincial  doctors,  wished  to  inform  themselves  by  further 
tests  of  the  nature  of  the  disease.  Mesmer  refused.  Never- 
theless, at  the  beginning  of  May,  1778,  he  betook  himself 
with  several  patients  to  the  village  of  Creteil,  two  leagues 
from  Paris,  and  from  thence  wrote  to  M.  Vicq  d'Azir,  Secretary 
of  the  Royal  Society,  announcing  his  intention  at  a  later 
period,  when  the  cures  were  completed,  of  inviting  a  Com- 
mission from  that  Society  to  testify  to  the  facts.  Meanwhile, 
in  compliance  with  the  understanding  above  referred  to, 
Mesmer  enclosed,  for  the  inspection  Oi"  the  Society, 
certificates,  or  diagnoses  {consultations),  signed  by  doctors 
of  the  Faculty.  The  Secretary  in  reply  intimates  that  a 
Commission  had  already  been  appointed,  in  accordance 
with  the  Society's  understanding  of  the  arrangement,  to 
follow  Mesmer's  treatment.  He  is  now  instructed  to  with- 
draw the  Commission,  to  return  Mesmer's  documents, 
without  breaking  the  seal  of  the  envelope  in  which  they 
were  enclosed,  and  to  intimate  that  the  Society  could  not 
undertake  to  certify  the  cure  of  maladies  the  existence  of 
which  in  the  first  instance  it  had  not  been  enabled  to 
ascertain. 

Mesmer  replied  to  this  letter  on  the  1 2th  of  May,  1778.     He 
professed  himself  desirous  at  all  costs  to  establish  the  truth  ; 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  45 

and  he  would  have  welcomed  the  proposed  visit  of  the  Com- 
missioners, "  if  I  thought  that  maladies  so  serious  as  those 
which  I  proposed  to  treat  could  be  satisfactorily  diagnosed 
by  a  single  inspection,  and  on  the  sole  statement  of  the 
patients  themselves."  MM.  Mauduit  and  Audrey,  members 
of  the  Royal  Society,  agree  with  him  on  this  point,  for  when 

Dame   L presented   her   daughter   to   them,  that   they 

might  diagnose  her  ailments, 

"  these  gentlemen  replied  that  they  could  see  that  the  young  woman 
made  convulsive  movements,  but  that  these  movements  were  not 
sufficient  in  themselves  to  prove  anything.  I  have  taken  then, 
Monsieur,  of  all  possible  courses  that  which  seemed  the  most  certain, 
and  at  the  same  time  most  in  accordance  with  the  intentions  of  the 
Royal  Society,  in  requiring  from  the  patients,  who  were  good  enough  to 
give  me  their  confidence,  attestations  or  diagnoses  drawn  up  and 
signed  by  members  of  the  Faculty,  and  I  sent  these  documents  to  the 
Society,  in  order  that  it  might  be  in  a  position  to  form  a  judgment  as 
to  the  cures  effected,  when  time  and  circumstances  permitted  of  my 
presenting  my  patients  for  examination." 

The  letter  was  an  adroit  move.  It  was  calculated,  as  in- 
deed Mesmer  practically  admits,  to  enlist  on  his  side  the 
Faculty  against  the  new  body,  whose  existence  and  claims 
were  naturally  the  subject  of  considerable  jealousy.  How  far 
the  misunderstanding  was  wilful  on  Mesmer's  part  it  is 
difficult  to  say.  But  his  account  of  the  matter  leaves  the  im- 
pression of  a  man  of  boundless  self-confidence,  of  confidence 
also  in  the  efficacy  of  his  new  treatment,  but  one  little  likely 
to  be  over  scrupulous  in  gaining  his  ends  ;  ready  to  impute 
the  basest  motives  to  his  adversaries,  and  skilled  in  the  arts 
of  sophistry  to  justify  himself  not  only  in  the  eyes  of  his 
disciples,  but  even  in  his  own.  He  is  the  typical  case  of  a 
man  who  believes  in  a  half-truth  because  he  chooses  to 
believe,  and  by  his  force  of  will  becomes  himself  the  chief  ot 
his  own  dupes. 

For  the  rest,  Mesmer's  position  is  intelligible  and  even  in  a 
measure  justifiable.  If  the  Royal  Society  had  had  their  way 
their  selection  would  probably  have  been  confined  to  well- 
marked  cases  of  organic  disease  ;  they  would,  no  doubt,  have 


46     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

excluded  all  ill-defined  ailments,  and  especially  all  cases  in 
which  the  symptoms  could  wholly  or  in  part  be  attributed 
to  nerves  or  hysteria.  In  other  words,  they  would  have 
excluded  some  nine-tenths  of  the  cures.  A  modern 
physician,  acquainted  with  the  marvellous  effects  of 
hypnotism  in  some  cases  of  nervous  and  hysterical  ail- 
ments, would  recognise  that  a  test  carried  on  under  such 
conditions  would  have  been  an  unfair  one.  But  as  against 
Mcsmer's  claim,  that  his  treatment  worked  by  physical 
means  alone,  and  was  independent  of  the  patient's  imagina- 
tion, such  a  process  of  selection  would  not  have  been  unfair. 
If  it  is  desired  to  test  the  action  of  a  new  physical  force,  it  is 
clearly  essential  to  eliminate  as  far  as  possible  the  operation 
of  all  disturbing  agencies,  such  as  "nerves"  and  imagination. 
Receiving  no  answer  to  his  letter  of  the  1 2th  of  May,  Mcsmcr 
wrote  again  to  the  Royal  Society  in  August.  The  reply  was 
a  definite  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  Society  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  alleged  cures  the  antecedent  conditions  of  which 
they  had  not  been  permitted  to  investigate.  A  similar 
application  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  remained  un- 
answered. After  August,  1778,  Mesmer's  personal  relations 
with  the  Academy  and  the  Royal  Society  were  broken  off. 
In  September  he  returned  to  Paris,  retaining  the  charge  of 
only  four  patients,  and  set  to  work  to  write  his  Mcjnoirs  on 
the  Discovery  of  Animal  Magnetism,  which  appeared  early  in 
the  following  year.  At  this  period  Mesmer  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  celebrated  astronomer  Bailly,  who  was 
subsequently  to  sit  in  judgment  on  his  pretensions.  Of 
Bailly's  candour  and  modesty  Mesmer  speaks  in  the  highest 
terms.  But  the  most  immediately  profitable  of  his  new 
acquaintances  was  Deslon,  physician  to  the  Count  d'Artois. 
Deslon  very  soon  became  almost  as  enthusiastic  for  the  new 
treatment  as  Mesmer  himself.  He  arranged  that  three  doc- 
tors of  the  Faculty — Bertrand,  Malloet,  and  Sollier — should 
pay  fortnightly  visits  to  Mesmer's  establishment  and  report 
on  the  results  of  the  treatment.  The  inquiry  went  on  for 
seven  months,  but  the  visiting  physicians  were  not  satisfied. 
Mesmer's  account  of  the  manner  in  which  they  dealt  with 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  47 

the  cases  submitted  to  them  may  be  quoted  as  illustrative  of 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  an  investigation  of  this  kind,  and 
of  the  attitude  persisted  in  for  generations  by  the  medical 
profession. 

Case  I. — A  paralytic  who  had  lost  sensation  and  warmth  in  the  lower 
half  of  the  body.  After  eight  days'  treatment  by  Mesmer,  warmth  and 
sensation  were  restored. 

The  restoration  of  warmth  and  sensibility  does  not  in  itself  indicate 
a  cure,  said  M.  Malloet.  Moreover,  the  results  may  be  due  to  nature 
alone. 

Case.  2. — Affected  with  paralysis  on  the  entire  right  side.  Was  carried 
to  his  treatment  on  a  litter.  After  two  months  was  so  far  recovered  as 
to  discard  the  litter  and  walk  to  the  treatment. 

The  physicians  saw  nothing  remarkable  in  this  case  beyond  the  fact 
that  the  hand  had  made  better  progress  than  the  foot. 

Case  3. — A  )fOung  girl  nearly  blind  as  a  sequel  to  tumours  in  the 
breast.    After  six  weeks'  treatment  her  sight  was  completely  restored. 

The  physicians  were  agreed  that  the  girl  could  now  see,  but  were  not 
so  sure  that  six  weeks  previously  she  had  been  blind. 

Case  4. — A  soldier  "  obstrue,"  in  his  own  words,  "  au  point  de  ne  plus 
penser  qu'a  la  mort";  a  month  later  "ne  pense  plus  qu'a  la  vie." 

The  physicians  thought  that  the  change  might  have  been  brought 
about  by  natural  causes. 

Case  5. — A  young  girl  emaciated  by  scrofula  had  already  lost  the  sight 
of  one  eye ;  the  other  was  covered  with  ulcers  and  attacked  by  a 
"hernia."  Six  weeks  later  she  had  put  on  flesh,  her  eye  was  free  from 
ulcers,  and  she  could  see  perfectly  with  it ;  the  scrofulous  swellings 
were  considerably  reduced. 

"  Wherein,"  said  the  physicians,  "  is  the  proof  that  Nature  has  been 
aided  by  Animal  Magnetism?" 

At  their  instance  Mesmer  made  repeated  experiments,  but 
failed  to  convince  the  three  physicians  that  Animal  Mag- 
netism could  produce  any  physical  effects  independently  of 
the  imagination  of  the  patient ;  and  the  inquiry  came  to  an 
inconclusive  termination  some  time  in  the  summer  of  1780. 

Deslon  published  in  the  course  of  this  year  his  Observations 
on  Animal  Magnetism,  and  two  or  three  pamphlets  appeared 
attacking  the  subject.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year — 1780 
— Mesmer,  with  the  aid  of  Deslon,  made  a  further  bid  for 
official  recognition.  He  addressed  a  Memorial  to  the  Faculty 
of  Medicine,  proposing  that  the  Faculty,  or  Mesmer  and  the 


48     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Faculty  jointly,  should  select  twenty-four  patients  ;  that  the 
twenty-four  patients  should  then  be  assigned,  by  lot,  twelve 
to  be  treated  by  Mesnner,  twelve  by  the  ordinary  practice, 
and  their  condition  at  the  end  of  a  reasonable  period  com- 
pared. The  whole  experiment  should  be  under  the  joint 
supervision  and  control  of  a  committee  chosen  by  the 
Faculty,  Mesmer  himself,  and  Commissioners  appointed  for 
the  purpose  by  the  Government,  the  members  of  which  should 
not  belong  to  any  medical  body.  The  Government  was  to 
be  asked  to  bear  the  expense  of  the  experiment.  Deslon 
applied  to  the  Dean  of  the  Faculty  to  summon  a  General 
Meeting,  to  which  he  might  submit  Mesmer's  proposals.  But 
some  of  Deslon's  colleagues  at  the  same  time  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  asking  for  a  General  Meeting  to  denounce  Deslon 
for  unprofessional  conduct.  A  meeting  on  the  twofold  appli- 
cation was  appointed  for  September  i8,  1780.  The  pro- 
ceedings were  begun  by  a  speech  from  M.  Roussel  de 
Vauzesmes,  a  brilliant  young  physician  and  a  bitter  oppo- 
nent of  the  new  treatment.  He  began  by  reminding  the 
assembled  doctors  that  in  the  history  of  medicine  there  had 
been  many  quacks,  who  had  enjoyed  brief  notoriety  by 
vaunting  a  secret  remedy.  Mesmer's  career  would,  no  doubt, 
have  been  as  short-lived  as  the  rest  if  he  had  not  unfortu- 
nately succeeded  in  allying  with  himself  a  physician  of  some 
standing,  and  a  Doctor  Regent  of  the  Faculty.  He  then 
gave  an  unflattering  sketch  of  Mesmer's  career  prior  to  his 
coming  to  Paris.  He  demonstrated  Mesmer's  palpable  igno- 
rance of  physics,  and  the  empty  and  unscientific  nature  of  his 
theory  of  Animal  Magnetism. 

The  speaker  then  proceeded  to  accuse  Deslon  of  conduct 
unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  his  profession,  in  allying  himself 
with  a  charlatan  who  professed  to  cure  by  means  of  a  secret 
universal  remedy.  Further,  Deslon  had  insulted  the  scientific 
world  in  general  and  the  Faculty  in  particular  ;  and,  lastly,  he 
had  propounded  principles  repugnant  to  sound  medical 
theory,  and  had  supported  them  by  a  recital  of  impossible 
cures.  De  Vauzesmes  went  on  to  deal  with  Deslon's  book, 
criticising  its  unprofessional  language,  and  holding  up  some 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  49 

of  the  alleged  cures  to  ridicule.  In  some  cases  he  succeeded 
in  showing  that  the  accounts  given  of  the  symptoms  were 
probably  exaggerated  ;  in  two  cases  he  was  himself  acquainted 
with  the  patients,  and  asserted  that  the  cases  had  been  mis- 
represented by  Deslon. 

Mesmer  had  won  considerable  fame  at  this  time — Sep- 
tember, 1780 — by  the  alleged  cure  of  M.  Busson,  physician  to 
the  Countess  d'Artois,  and  as  the  cure  had  been  publicly 
announced  only  a  few  days  before  the  meeting,  de  Vauzesmes 
felt  bound  to  give  his  account  of  the  case.  M.  Busson  was 
attacked  by  a  nasal  polypus  of  enormous  proportions.  Six 
physicians,  including  one  of  Mesmer's  chief  opponents,  de 
Home,  had  in  consultation  decided  that  an  operation  was 
inadvisable,  but  they  were  unanimously  of  opinion,  according 
to  de  Vauzesmes'  that  it  was  possible  that  a  favourable 
suppuration  {fonte  heureuse)  might  occur,  and  the  polypus 
thus  disappear  in  the  course  of  nature.^  This  is  de 
Vauzesmes,  account  of  the  matter.  But  Burdin  and  Dubois 
{Hist.  Acad.,  p.  21)  expressly  say  "  les  chirurgiens  et  les 
m^decins  les  plus  habiles  la  dcclarerent  incurable,  annongant 
que  s'il  arrivait  une  fonte,  ce  serait  une  fonte  de  mauvais 
caractere."  What  did  those  six  doctors  really  say?  That 
we  shall  probably  never  know.  But  it  is  worth  noting  that 
at  the  time  when  de  Vauzesmes  was  speaking  M.  Busson  was 
alive,  and  proclaiming  himself  cured.  De  Vauzesmes,  there- 
fore, was  concerned  to  show  that  the  improvement  in  health 
was  due  entirely  to  the  recuperative  force  of  nature,  and  that 
it  had  actually  been  predicted  as  not  improbable.  But 
M.  Busson  unfortunately  died  a  few  days  after  de  Vauzesmes' 
speech.  The  authors  of  the  Academic  History,  writing  sixty 
years  after  the  event,  tell  us  that  the  attendant  physicians 
and  surgeons  had  foreseen  the  unfavourable  issue  !  The 
judicious  reader  will,  no  doubt,  conclude  that  the  mis- 
representations and  perversions  of  fact  in  this  century-long 
controversy  are  not  all  on  the  side  of  the  Animal  Magnetists. 

Deslon's  justification  of  his  conduct  was  ingeniously  con- 
ceived.   He  gave  a  sketch  of  his  relations  with  Mesmer.    The 

'  Precis  historiqite,  p.  150. 
E 


50     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

two  men  became  acquainted  just  at  the  time  when  Mesmer 
had  definitely  broken  off  his  relations  with  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  and  the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine.  The  first- 
named  body  had  neglected  and  practically  ignored  him. 
But  the  Royal  Society  had  gone  further ;  it  was  impossible 
for  it  to  ignore  a  matter  so  directly  within  its  province 
as  a  new  discovery  in  therapeutics.  But  after  undertaking  to 
examine  it  had,  ostensibly  because  of  a  technical  informality, 
but  actuated  really  by  wounded  vanity,  broken  its  engage- 
ment, and  so  put  itself  wholly  in  the  wrong.  Deslon  was  as 
anxious  as  Mesmer  that  the  Magnetic  treatment  should  be 
fully  examined  by  competent  judges,  and  he  felt  that  the 
Faculty  were  the  proper  persons  to  undertake  the  task.  But 
he  pointed  out  that  it  would  not  have  been  judicious  to 
invoke  the  aid  of  the  Faculty  at  the  date  of  his  first  acquaint- 
ance with  Mesmer,  September,  1778.  If  the  Faculty  had  at 
that  date  pronounced  in  favour  of  Mesmer's  treatment,  the 
Royal  Society,  which  had  already  usurped  so  many  of  the 
former  privileges  of  the  Faculty,  would  have  welcomed  the 
opportunity  for  still  further  crushing  and  humiliating  it,  and 
might  have  done  so  safely  since  Mesmer  was  at  that  time 
alone  and  almost  friendless  ;  he  had  not  been  sufficiently  long 
in  Paris  for  the  benefits  of  his  treatment  to  be  known  as  they 
were  now  known  to  the  public  at  large.  But  the  last  two 
years  had  given  Mesmer  an  assured  standing;  and  furnished 
many  incontrovertible  proofs  of  the  beneficial  nature  of  his 
treatment.  MM.  Malloet,  Bertrand,  and  Sollier  were  wit- 
nesses ;  and  if  they  had  not  spoken  in  favour  of  Mesmer, 
they  had  not  ventured  to  deny  the  reality  of  the  cures 
which  they  had  witnessed.  The  Faculty,  said  he,  had  now 
the  opportunity  of  repairing  the  serious  error  committed 
by  the  Royal  Society,  and  incidentally  of  strengthening 
their  own  position  as  against  their  rivals.  It  was  equally 
their  duty  and  their  interest  to  endorse  Mesmer's  claims  and 
to  press  them  upon  the  consideration  of  the  Government, 
to  whom  alone  Mesmer  was  willing  to  make  known  his 
secret. 

Deslon,  after  making  his  speech,  retired  whilst  the  Faculty 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  51 

deliberated.     He  was  recalled  to  hear  the  decision  of  the 
meeting,  which  was  couched  in  four  resolutions — 

1.  A  warning  to  him  to  be  more  circumspect  in  future. 

2.  Suspension  for  a  year  of  his  power  to  vote  in  the 
meetings. 

3.  Erasure  of  his  name  from  the  list  of  Doctors  Regent  if 
he  had  not  at  the  end  of  a  year  disavowed  his  Observations 
on  Animal  Magnetism. 

4.  Rejection  of  Mesmer's  proposals. 

A  year  later,  when  the  time  came  for  Deslons  name  to  be 
struck  off  the  rolls,  he  presented  himself  before  the  Faculty 
and  boldly  proclaimed  himself  not  merely  a  follower  of  the 
Magnetic  treatment,  but  the  possessor  of  his  master's  secret. 
Many  of  his  colleagues  were  tainted  with  the  heresy.  Some 
thirty  doctors  lay  under  suspicion,  and  the  Council  of  the 
Faculty  summoned  them  to  its  presence  one  by  one  and 
called  upon  them  to  sign,  under  pain  of  degradation,  an 
undertaking  that  they  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
Animal  Magnetism  either  in  their  practice  or  in  their 
writings.  Several  of  the  thirty  suspects  refused  to  sign  and 
shared  Deslon's  fate.^ 

The  Royal  Society  of  Medicine  had  expressed  their  willing- 
ness to  investigate,  and  had  only  withdrawn  from  their  under- 
taking when  Mesmer  had  refused  to  comply  with  the  condi- 
tions which  seemed  to  them  essential.  They  were,  no  doubt, 
technically  justified  in  their  attitude.  And  in  any  case,  in 
1778,  the  matter  was  of  less  importance.  Mesmer  had  yet 
his  reputation  to  make  in  Paris.  But  two  years  later,  when 
his  halls  of  reception  were  thronged  and  all  Paris  was  ringing 
with  his  cures,  when  more  than  one  physician  of  distinction 
had  been  convinced,  the  need  for  investigation  could  scarcely 
be  ignored.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Faculty  of  Medicine, 
without  even  calling  for  a  report  from  those  of  their  members 
who  had  been  following  the  treatment  for  months,  without 
any  facts  before  them  to  justify  their  procedure,  and  moved 
apparently  solely  by  the  violently  partisan  denunciation  of 
one  of  their  body  who  had  himself  little,  if  any,  first-hand 
'  Bertrand,  Du  Magneiisme  animal  en  France,  p.  49. 


52     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

acquaintance  with  the  facts — it  was  under  such  circumstances 
that  the  Faculty  of  Paris  not  only  refused  to  investigate,  but 
resolved  to  punish  the  man  who  had  invited  them  to  discharge 
a  plain  duty.^ 

Failing  to  win  the  support  of  any  learned  Society,  Mesmer 
now  resolved  to  approach  the  Government  direct.  He 
numbered  among  his  patients  and  partisans  many  of  the 
nobility  and  the  clergy ;  the  Queen  herself  was  known  to  be 
not  unfavourable  to  the  pretensions  of  her  fellow-countryman. 
Negotiations  were  opened  in  the  first  instance  through  the 
intermediation  of  Deslon  with  Laffonne,  physician  to  their 
Majesties.  A  Commission  was  suggested,  but  the  project, 
after  considerable  delay,  fell  through.  Mesmer  then  threatened 
to  leave  Paris  and  betake  himself  to  Spa.  The  Queen 
caused  a  message  to  be  conveyed  to  him  asking  him  in  the 
interests  of  humanity  not  to  desert  his  patients.  Shortly 
afterwards  definite  proposals  were  put  before  Mesmer  by  the 
Government.  He  was  offered  a  yearly  pension  of  20,000 
livres  and  a  further  sum  of  10,000  livres  to  enable  him  to 
rent  suitable  premises  for  carrying  on  his  treatment.  In 
return  he  was  to  instruct  in  his  system  three  pupils  nominated 
by  the  Government.  Mesmer  had  privately  intimated  that 
instead  of  an  annual  rental  he  would  prefer  that  a  certain 
chateau,  with  its  demesne,  should  be  placed  at  his  disposal. 
The  Minister,  in  making  the  offer  above  mentioned,  intimated 
that  the  question  of  making  any  further  concessions  must 
depend  upon  the  report  furnished  by  the  three  pupils  = 
nominated  by  the  Government.  Mesmer  professed  to  find 
the  terms  unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  his  great  discovery. 
If  the  King's  advisers  did  not  believe  in  that  discovery,  said 
he,  they  ought  not  to  offer  him  so  much  as  30,000  livres  a 

»  Even  the  authors  of  the  Academic  History  condemn  the  conduct  of 
the  Faculty  :  "Celle-ci  eut  le  grand  tort,  rimnicnse  tort  dc  vouloir  juger 
les  faits  annonces  par  Mesmer  sans  se  donner  la  peine  de  les  examiner 
prealablement "  (p.  13). 

'  Eleves.  The  word,  it  should  be  added,  is  Mesmer's  own.  The 
original  proposal,  which  Mesmer  gives  in  its  official  form,  had  suggested 
the  appointment  of  Commissioners.  To  meet  Mesmer's  objection  this 
part  of  the  proposal  was  withdrawn  and  pupils  were  proposed  instead. 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  53 

year.  If  they  did  believe  in  it,  the  sum  was  absurdly 
inadequate.  In  a  letter  to  the  Queen  he  explained  that 
the  austerity  of  his  principles  imperiously  forbade  him  to 
accept  the  proffered  terms.  But  to  her  Majesty,  he  suggests, 
400,000  or  500,000  livres  more  or  less  would  be  nothing ;  the 
welfare  of  the  people  is  everything.  His  discovery  ought  to 
be  welcomed  and  himself  recompensed  with  a  munificence 
worthy  of  the  grandeur  of  the  monarch  whom  he  wished  to 
serve.  Meanwhile,  in  order  apparently  to  afford  the  Govern- 
ment time  for  repentance,  he  promised  the  Queen  that  he 
would  not  carry  out  his  threat  of  leaving  France  until  the 
1 8th  of  September,  1781 — the  anniversary  of  the  rejection  of 
his  proposals  by  the  Faculty. 

If  Mesmer  had  calculated  on  forcing  the  hand  of  the 
Government,  he  was  disappointed.  His  greed  was  perhaps 
too  apparent,  and  no  further  offer  was  received  from  the 
Minister. 

After  the  end  of  the  year  he  retired  for  a  time  to  Spa, 
where  some  of  his  wealthy  patients  followed  him.  There 
he  learnt  that  Deslon  after  his  departure  had  set  up  in  Paris 
on  his  own  account  an  establishment  for  treatment  by 
Magnetism  and  that  he  claimed  to  have  discovered  the 
great  secret  on  which  Mesmer  set  so  high  a  price.  Mesmer, 
we  are  told,  was  in  despair  at  what  he  deemed  to  be  Deslon's 
treachery.  Some  of  his  patients  and  disciples  took  the 
opportunity  for  making  an  arrangement  with  Mesmer.  He 
was  to  reveal  the  secret  of  his  discovery  to  his  pupils  and  to 
give  them  a  complete  course  of  instruction  in  the  practice  of 
Animal  Magnetism.  Each  pupil  undertook  to  pay  100  louis 
(2,400  livres),  and  Mesmer  appears  to  have  received  a 
guarantee  that  the  total  sum  paid  him  should  be  not  less 
than  240,000  livres  (somewhere  about  ;^io,ooo).  In  the 
event  he  received  more  than  340,000  livres.  The  pupils 
formed  themselves  into  a  Society  of  Harmony  and  proposed 
to  pass  on  the  lessons  which  they  had  learnt  and  to  instruct 
others  in  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  new  healing. 
Mesmer  vehemently  opposed  this  project.  He  maintained 
that  they  had  signed  a  formal  undertaking  not  to  instruct 


54     MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

others  or  to  undertake  any  public  treatment  of  the  sick 
without  his  express  permission.  As  the  price  of  that  per- 
mission he  required  that  they  should  establish  centres  of 
Magnetic  treatment  throughout  the  provinces  and  should 
hand  over  to  him  half  the  fees  which  they  received.  Many 
of  his  pupils  were  men  of  great  wealth  and  position.  The 
first  list  of  members  includes  four  dukes,  eight  marquises 
(one  of  whom  was  Lafayette),  many  other  noblemen,  ambas- 
sadors, landed  proprietors,  officers  in  the  army,  abbes,  besides 
many  doctors.'  Naturally  they  had  no  desire  to  become 
Mesmer's  agents.  Many  of  them  did  not  propose  to  practise 
for  money ;  the  knowledge  they  had  acquired  was  to  be 
given  freely  for  the  benefit  of  suffering  humanity.  In  the 
event  the  discussion  became  extremely  bitter.  It  was  ended 
by  the  Society  of  Harmony  meeting  and  resolving  that  they 
were  not  bound  by  the  agreement  upon  which  Mesmer 
relied,  and  thenceforth  the  members,  of  whom  the  Marquis 
de  Puysdgur  was  one,  held  themselves  at  liberty  freely  to 
use  the  knowledge  which  they  had  acquired.  The  explana- 
tion of  the  misunderstanding  shows  Mesmer's  greed  in  a 
most  unpleasant  light.  According  to  Bertrand,  the  earliest 
pupils,  eager  to  begin  their  course,  had,  as  said,  guaranteed 
to  Mesmer  the  price  of  one  hundred  subscriptions.  But  as 
it  was  evident  that  if  any  of  these  earlier  pupils  prematurely 
revealed  the  secret  the  guarantors  would  run  the  risk  of 
losing  their  money  it  was  agreed,  in  their  own  interests,  to 
bind  themselves  to  secrecy  until  the  subscription  list  was 
complete.  It  is  scarcely  conceivable  in  any  event  that  the 
pupils,  who  were  men  of  honour,  should  have  deliberately 
cheated  Mesmer,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  seeing  that  many  o 
them  were  men  of  affairs,  that  they  should  have  paid  a  large 
sum  for  a  secret  which  they  were  unable  to  use.^  For  the 
rest,  it  is  noteworthy,  as  Deleuze  has  pointed  out,  that  in  the 
midst  of  this  embittered  controversy  we  do  not  hear  that  one 
of  the  lOO  or  150  pupils  complained  that  he  had  bought  the 
secret  too  dear.     Their  eagerness  to  impart  its  benefits  to 

'  See  Bureau,  Notes  bibliographiqties  (1869),  p.  32. 
'  Bertrand,  Dii  Magnetisme  animal  en  France,  p.  57. 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  55 

others  is  in  itself  the  strongest  proof  of  the  value  they  set 
upon  it.  For  them,  at  any  rate,  Mesmer's  great  discovery 
was  not  a  sham.  One  exception  should  be  made,  however, 
to  this  statement.  The  distinguished  chemist  Berthollet, 
himself  a  Doctor  Regent  of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine,  attended 
Mesmer's  course  of  instruction  in  the  spring  of  1784.  On 
the  1st  of  May  he  made  the  following  declaration  : — 

"  After  having  attended  more  than  half  of  M.  Mesmer's  course  ; 
after  having  been  admitted  to  the  halls  of  treatment  and  of  crises, 
where  I  have  employed  myself  in  making  observations  and  experi- 
ments, I  declare  that  I  have  found  no  ground  for  believing  in  the 
existence  of  the  agent  called  by  M.  Mesmer  Animal  Magnetism  ;  that 
I  consider  the  doctrine  taught  to  us  in  the  course  irreconcilable  with 
some  of  the  best  established  facts  in  the  system  of  the  universe  and  in 
the  animal  economy  ;  that  I  have  seen  nothing  in  the  convulsions,  the 
spasms — in  short,  in  the  cures  alleged  to  be  produced  by  the  magnetic 
passes — which  could  not  be  attributed  entirely  to  the  imagination,  io  the 
mechanical  effect  of  friction  on  regions  well  supplied  with  nerves,  and 
to  that  law,  long  since  recognised,  which  causes  an  animal  to  tend  to 
imitate,  even  involuntarily,  the  movements  of  another  animal  which  it 
sees,  trying  to  place  itself  in  the  same  position — a  law  so  frequently 
illustrated  by  epidemic  convulsions.  I  declare  finally  that  I  regard  the 
theory  of  Animal  Magnetism  and  the  practice  based  upon  it  as 
perfectly  chimerical ;  and  I  am  willing  that  this  declaration  should  be 
made  use  of  in  any  way  that  may  be  found  desirable. 

"  Berthollet." 

At  the  very  time  when  Berthollet  issued  this  manifesto  an 
inquisition  on  the  claims  of  Animal  Magnetism  was  already 
proceeding.  Disquieted  at  the  rapid  progress  made  by  the 
new  treatment  amongst  all  classes  of  society,  and  notably 
amongst  fashionable  folk,  alike  in  Paris  and  in  the  provinces,  ^^^"^ 

the  Government  on  March  12,  i284,_appQiftted-two-€omffl4^ ^1 

sions.to  inquire  mto  the  matter— -one  chosen  from  the  Faculty,  / 
one  from  the  Royal  Society.  On  the  application  of  the  first-  - — 
named  body  five  members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  were 
joined  in  the  Commission,  with  four  medical  representatives. 
The  five  members  were  Benjamin  Franklin,  Leroy,  Bailly, 
de  Bory,  and  Lavoisier.  The  four  doctors  of  the  Faculty  were 
Majault,  Sallin,  D'Arcet,  and  Guillotin.  The  Commission 
from    the  Royal  Society  pursued    its  investigations  concur- 


56     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

rently  but  independently,  and  the  two  Reports  were  presented 
almost  simultaneously.  It  was  naturally  the  Report  of  the 
first-named  Commission,  which  included  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  savants  of  the  day,  the  Report  itself  drawn 
up  with  great  literary  skill  by  Bailly,  that  drew  the  public 
attention.  The  Report  was  signed  on  August  nth,  and 
was  immediately  printed  and  circulated  throughout  the 
kingdom. 

Bailly  and  his  colleagues  begin  by  quoting  from  Mesmer's 
propositions  (above,  p.  38)  a  description  of  the  fluid  into  the 
existence  and  properties  of  which  it  was  their  duty  to 
inquire.  The  investigations  were  to  be  conducted  on 
Deslon's  patients,  as  Deslon  himself  accepted  Mesmer's 
statement  of  the  theory  of  Animal  Magnetism. '  The  Com- 
missioners point  out  that  the  effects  produced  by  the  alleged 
fluid  may  be,  for  the  purpose  of  the  inquiry,  divided  under 
three  heads  :  (i)the  physical  effects,  (2)  the  immediate  physio- 
logical effects  produced  on  the  organism  of  the  patient, 
(3)  the  therapeutic  effects. 

I.  As  regards  the  first  point,  they  satisfied  themselves, 
by  means  of  an  electrometer  and  an  iron  needle,  that  the 
Baquet  was  innocent  of  either  electricity  or  magnetism  of  the 
"  mineral  "  kind.  No  strictly  physical  proof  of  the  fluid  could 
be  obtained.  But  amongst  the  patients  some  professed 
occasionally  to  see  the  fluid  streaming  from  the  end  of  the 
operator's  finger  or  to  feel  an  impression  of  cold  or  heat 
where  the  healing  stream  fell  upon  the  skin.  No  doubt  the 
Commissioners  were  perfectly  justified  in  summarily  dismiss- 
ing these  statements  as  of  no  account.  But  they  would  have 
been  wiser  not  to  have  given  their  reasons.  Bailly  and  his 
colleagues  gravely  pronounced  that  the  visible  emanations 
were  simply  the  transpiration  from  the  operator's  skin,  that 
the  feeling  of  cold  was  due  to  the  movement  of  the  air  caused 
by   the  operator's  finger,  and    the  impression  of  heat   was 

'  The  Commissioners  do  not  give  their  reasons  for  choosing  to  study 
the  treatment  under  the  guidance  of  Deslon  rather  than  of  Mesmer 
himself.  Probably  the  real  reason  could  not  be  stated  so  as  to  avoid 
giving  offence. 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  57 

simply  due  to  the  communication  of  animal  heat  from  the 
operator.  If  this  statement  was  made,  as  it  appears  to  have 
been,  in  the  first  intention,  and  not  merely  as  an  ironical 
device  for  dismissing  the  allegations  in  question,  it  is  quite 
clear  that  the  Commissioners  had  not  taken  the  trouble  to 
make  themselves  acquainted  at  first  hand  with  the  subject 
under  discussion,  and  had  so  far  neglected  their  duties.  A 
modern  student  of  the  subject  knows  well  enough  that  the 
explanation  given  by  the  Commissioners  was  irrelevant  and 
ridiculous.  All  these  subjective  effects  and  others  more  re- 
markable can  safely  be  ascribed  to  expectation  and  imagi- 
nation on  the  part  of  the  patient. 

3.  As  regards  the  therapeutic  effects,  the  Commissioners 
decided  that  it  would  be  useless  to  employ  them  as  a  test  of 
the  magnetic  fluid.  In  the  first  place,  they  pointed  out,  we 
know  too  little  about  the  human  economy  and  about  the 
effect  of  drugs,  to  be  able  with  certainty  to  ascribe  any  given 
effect  to  a  given  cause.  We  constantly  see  what  is  appar- 
ently the  same  disease  cured  by  drugs  and  treatments  of 
precisely  opposite  potencies.  In  the  second  place,  as 
Mesmer  had  himself  admitted,  cures  prove  nothing,  since  we 
can  never  eliminate  the  vis  medicatrix  naturce.  To  establish 
any  conclusion  by  the  experimental  method  would  require 
an  infinity  of  lives,  and  perhaps  "  the  experience  of  several 
centuries."  As  a  subsidiary  argument  they  add  that  it 
would  annoy  the  distinguished  patients  who  sat  round  the 
Baquet  to  be  importuned  with  questions  as  to  their 
symptoms. 

As  the  matter  was  of  urgent  importance,  and  time  would 
not  permit  of  the  alleged  cures  being  adequately  tested,  the 
Commissioners  conceived  themselves  limited  to  testing  the 
existence  of  the  alleged  fluid  by  its  immediate  physiological 
effects,  such  as  pain,  shivering,  convulsions,  stimulation  of 
secretions,  &c. — in  a  word,  the  crisis  with  all  its  accompani- 
ments and  consequents.  Their  task  thus  simplified,  the 
Commissioners  found  little  difficulty  in  showing  that  the 
symptoms  of  the  crisis,  and  the  physiological  effects  of 
the    treatment   j^enerallv,  when    not    the    direct    result    of 


58     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

the  mechanical  processes  employed,  or  the  effect  of  uncon- 
scious imitation,  could  safely  be  attributed  to  the  imagination 
of  the  patients.  They  made  several  control  experiments. 
The  Commissioners  themselves  submitted  to  the  treatment, 
and  selected  several  other  patients,  some  from  the  ranks  of  the 
people,  some  from  the  higher  classes  of  society,  for  treatment. 
Of  fourteen  sick  persons,  nine  experienced  no  effect  what- 
ever, and  in  other  cases  the  effect  produced  was  equivocal.  A 
man  with  an  inflamed  eye,  for  instance,  felt  pain  under  the 
treatment,  not  in  the  injured  eye,  as  he  should  have  done 
according  to  the  theory,  but  in  the  eye  which  was  sound. 
The  sick  children  who  were  magnetised  experienced  no 
effects,  because  they  did  not  know  what  to  expect.  Again, 
the  Commissioners  found  that  M.  Jumelin,  who  held  a  theory 
different  from  Mesmer  and  Deslon,  produced  precisely  similar 
effects,  though  he  took  no  pains  to  observe  the  distinction  of 
poles  in  the  human  body,  a  precaution  which  was  essential 
on  the  theory  of  Animal  Magnetism.  Finally,  they  made 
several  experiments  on  persons  blindfolded,  or  placed  in 
front  of  closed  doors,  behind  which,  unknown  to  the  patient, 
the  operator  took  his  stand.  Sometimes  they  told  the  patient 
under  such  conditions  that  she  was  being  magnetised  when 
she  was  not  ;  sometimes  they  magnetised  her  without  her 
knowledge.  In  each  case  the  result  followed,  not  on  the 
fact,  but  on  the  expectation  of  the  patient ;  if  she  believed 
herself  to  be  operated  upon,  she  fell  into  a  crisis  ;  if  her 
expectation  was  not  excited,  she  remained  calm.  One 
experiment  of  the  kind  was  made  at  Passy  in  presence  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  whose  health  would  not  permit  him  to 
make  the  journey  to  Paris.  Deslon  was  taken  into  the 
garden,  and  there  magnetised  an  apricot-tree  standing  at 
a  considerable  distance  from  any  other  tree.  A  patient  of 
his  own,  a  boy  of  12,  was  then  introduced,  blindfolded.  The 
boy  was  led  up  to  four  trees  in  succession.  He  began  to 
sweat  profusely  on  contact  with  the  first  tree,  and  fell  into  a 
violent  crisis  at  the  fourth — never  having  approached  within  24 
feet  of  the  tree  actually  magnetised.  Deslon  was  compelled 
to  attribute  the  result  to  the  natural  magnetism  of  the  trees. 


I 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMMISSION  59 

reinforced  by  his  own  presence  (at  some  distance  from  the 
boy)  in  the  orchard  ! 

The  Commissioners  further  point  out  that  imitation 
undoubtedly  played  a  large  part  in  spreading  the  more 
violent  movements  observed  in  the  crisis ;  and  that  the 
strong  and  frequently  long-continued  pressure  applied  to  the 
region  of  the  stomach  and  the  intestines  was  in  itself  a 
sufficient  cause  of  many  of  the  accompaniments  of  the  crisis  ; 
and  that  from  this  cause  there  was  reason  to  fear  serious 
danger  both  to  health  and  morals.  The  Report  concludes  as 
follows : — 

"  The  Commissioners  having  found  that  the  Animal  Magnetic  fluid 
cannot  be  perceived  by  any  of  our  senses,  that  it  has  no  action  either 
on  themselves  or  on  the  patients  whom  they  have  presented  for  treat- 
ment ;  being  satisfied  that  the  touches  and  pressure  employed  are  the 
cause  of  changes  in  the  organism  which  are  rarely  of  a  favourable 
character,  and  are  liable  to  produce  a  deplorable  effect  on  the  imagi- 
nation ;  having  finally  shown  by  conclusive  experiments  that  the 
imagination  without  the  aid  of  Magnetism  can  produce  convulsions, 
and  that  Magnetism  without  the  imagination  can  produce  nothing; 
they  have  come  to  the  unanimous  conclusion,  on  the  question  submitted 
to  them  of  the  existence  and  utiHty  of  Animal  Magnetism,  that  there  is 
no  proof  of  the  existence  of  the  Animal  Magnetic  fluid ;  that  this  fluid, 
having  no  existence,  has  in  consequence  no  utility ;  but  that  the 
violent  effects  which  are  observed  in  the  public  treatment  are  caused 
by  the  touches  of  the  operator,  the  excited  imagination  of  the  patient, 
and  by  the  involuntary  instinct  of  imitation.  At  the  same  time  they 
feel  compelled  to  utter  a  serious  warning :  that  the  touches  and  the 
repeated  stimulation  of  the  imagination  in  the  production  of  the 
crisis  may  prove  harmful ;  that  the  spectacle  of  the  crisis  is  equally 
dangerous,  because  of  the  risk  of  imitation  which  seems  to  be  a  law  of 
nature ;  and  that  in  consequence  all  public  treatment  by  Magnetism 
must  in  the  long  run  have  deplorable  consequences." 

In  a  confidential  Report  to  the  Government  the  Commis- 
sion emphasised  the  moral  dangers  likely  to  result  from  the 
practice  of  Animal  Magnetism  as  at  present  carried  on. 
The  danger  is  all  the  greater,  they  point  out,  because  both 
physician  and  patient  may  be  unconscious  of  its  existence. 

The  Report  of  the  Commission  nominated  from  the  Royal 
Society   of  Medicine,   which   appeared   five   days   later,  on 


6o     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

August  1 6th,  was  to  the  same  effect.  Here  also  great  stress 
was  laid  upon  the  mischievous  effects  likely  to  follow  from 
the  crisis,  both  on  the  health  of  the  individual  and,  by  the 
contagion  of  example,  on  others.  The  Royal  Society  had 
not,  however,  felt  itself  precluded  from  making  observations 
on  the  state  of  the  patients  under  treatment  by  Deslon  ;  they 
give  in  brief  the  result  of  four  months'  experience.  The 
patients  are  divided  into  three  classes : — 

1.  Les  malades  dont  les  maux  etaient  evidents  et  avaient 
une  cause  connue. 

2.  Ceuxdont  les  maux  Icgers  consistaient  en  des  affections 
vagues,  sans  cause  dcterminee. 

3.  Les  melancoliques. 

To  the  lay  mind  the  classification  is  not  exhaustive.  Even 
in  the  present  state  of  medical  science  it  is  possible  for  a  man 
to  be  seriously  and  unmistakably  ill  without  any  agreement 
of  the  doctors  as  to  the  precise  cause,  or  to  have  a  compara- 
tively slight  ailment  of  a  perfectly  definite  and  recognised 
character.  And,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  account  given  in 
Chapter  I.,  there  were  at  the  time  of  the  Commission's  visits 
many  patients  of  both  these  classes  undergoing  treatment  and 
being  cured.  However  the  Commissioners  report  that  as 
regards  the  first  class — definite  maladies — they  observed  no 
case  of  cure,  or  even  appreciable  improvement.  The  third 
class,  melancholia,  is  dismissed  in  a  sentence.  But  of  the 
second  class  many  professed  to  find  their  health  better,  their 
digestion  improved,  &c. 

These  results  the  Commissioners  attribute  to  three  causes 
— hope,  regular  exercise,  and  abstinence  from  the  remedies 
which  they  had  previously  taken.  The  last  is  a  strange 
reason  to  proceed  from  the  mouth  of  a  committee  of  doctors. 
But  no  doubt  there  was  some  truth  in  the  reason  given, 
especially  if  we  remember  that  amongst  the  remedies  thus 
discontinued  were  included  in  some  cases  the  cupping-glass 
and  the  moxa. 

One  of  the  five  Commissioners  chosen  from  the  Royal 
Society  of  Medicine,  M.  de  Jussieu,  issued  a  separate  Report 
on  his  own  account.     His   Report  is  noteworthy  in  several 


THE   FIRST   FRENCH   COMxMISSION  6i 

respects.  As  will  be  shown  later,  he  proved  himself  a  better 
observer  than  his  colleagues.  Moreover,  his  conclusion  on  the 
curative  effect  of  the  treatment  differs  from  theirs.  He  agrees 
that  the  repeated  crises  are  probably  injurious  to  the  patient 
in  many  cases,  especially  in  phthisis.  He  finds  it  almost 
impossible  from  his  own  observation  to  establish  any  real 
improvement  in  the  majority  of  the  cases  treated.  But  in 
some  cases  he  is  satisfied  that  favourable  changes  had 
occurred  during  the  few  weeks  or  months  in  which  he  was 
able  to  watch  the  treatment.  Amongst  these  were  several 
patients  whose  eyes  were  affected.  In  one  instance,  the  eyes 
of  the  patient  were  covered — "  a  la  suite  d'un  lait  repandu" — 
with  films  so  thick  that  the  iris  could  not  be  discerned  when 
she  first  came  for  treatment  in  May.  The  disease  had  lasted 
for  five  years.  After  treatment  for  a  few  weeks  the  outlines 
of  the  iris  could  be  seen  and  the  patient  could  distinguish 
colours  and  make  out  some  objects  held  three  inches  from  her 
eyes.  In  another  case  a  washerwoman  had  injured  her  arm 
in  lifting  a  heavy  tub ;  she  had  tried  various  treatments 
without  relief  for  more  than  a  year.  When  she  came  to 
Deslon  the  whole  shoulder  was  swollen  and  painful,  and  she 
could  not  move  the  arm  at  either  the  shoulder  or  the  elbow- 
joint.  The  hand  and  fingers  she  could  move  with  some 
difficulty.  The  pain  in  her  shoulder  was  continuous,  and 
interfered  with  her  sleep.  In  the  first  few  days  of  the  treat- 
ment the  pain  was  lessened,  and  some  hours  of  quiet  sleep 
ensued  each  night.  The  last  time  that  de  Jussieu  saw  her, 
after  five  weeks'  treatment,  the  case  had  made  such  progress 
that  the  patient  could  lift  her  hand  to  her  head. 

De  Jussieu's  conclusion  is  that  imagination,  unwonted 
exercise,  freedom  from  drugs,  and  the  other  incidental 
advantages  of  the  Magnetic  treatment,  are  not  in  themselves 
sufficient  to  account  for  all  the  facts  observed.  He  finds 
traces  of  some  real  and  continuous  cause  operating,  and  he  is 
inclined  to  identify  this  cause  with  the  animal  heat.  But  the 
animal  heat  which  de  Jussieu  imagines  is  an  agent  almost  as 
transcendental  and  far-reaching  as  Mesmer's  magnetic  fluid. 
The   important   point  in  his  theory,  which  distinguishes  it 


62     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

from  Mesmer's  conception,  as  expressed  in  the  propositions, 
of  an  indifferent  mechanical  fluid,  is  that  he  conceives  the 
operation  of  the  animal  heat — the  principle  of  vitality — to  be 
directed  and  intensified  by  the  will.  In  the  recognition  of 
the  human  element  we  find  the  beginnings  of  the  true  scientific 
explanation. 


I 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    DISCOVERY   OF   SOMNAMBULISM 

Shortcomings  of  Bailly's  Report — A  thing  which  does  not  exist  may 
yet  be  useful — Replies  :  Doutes  d'tin  Provincial — The  case  of  Court  de 
Gebelin — Reports  from  provincial  doctors.  The  Marquis  de  Puysegur 
— His  discovery  of  Somnambulism — SomnambuHc  diagnosis  and 
"  predictions " — The  theory  of  a  vital  fluid — The  tree  at  Busancy. 
Mesmer's  real  secret — Beheve  and  Will — Observations  of  Tardy  de 
Montravel,  Petetin,  Deleuze — Influence  of  the  magnetic  fluid  in 
stimulating  the  intellectual  functions. 

PERHAPS  the  worst  that  can  be  said  of  Bailly's 
Report  is  that  the  Commission  insisted  on  too 
narrow  an  interpretation  of  their  mandate.  The 
task  imposed  upon  them  by  Government  was  obviously  dis- 
tasteful, and  they  were  glad  to  rid  themselves  of  it  as  speedily 
as  was  consistent  with  their  duty.  Mesmer,  whatever  else  we 
may  believe  him  to  have  been,  was  unquestionably  a  quack 
and  a  charlatan.  His  belief  in  his  vaunted  discovery  was,  no 
doubt,  genuine,  but  his  enthusiasm  was  certainly  not  altogether 
disinterested.  The  throng  of  fashionable  folk  displaying 
their  hysterical  antics  round  the  magnetic  trough  was  a 
spectacle  as  futile  to  science  as  it  was  repulsive  to  common 
sense.  The  distinguished  patients  could  not  be  questioned  too 
closely  without  risk  of  annoying  them.  This  one  sentence 
serves  to  illustrate  the  attitude  of  the  Commission.  The 
thing  to  them  was  not  a  matter  for  serious  investigation,  but  a 
fashionable  craze,  one  more  folly  of  the  idle  rich,  of  the 
representatives  of  the  Court,  the  old  nobility,  and  the  clergy — 
all  the  elements  in  the  State  which  were  most  repugnant  to 
63 


64     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

the  spirit  of  the  new  age,  even  then  swelling  to  the  flood  that 
should  sweep  them  away. 

Moreover,  the  theory  of  Animal  Magnetism  bore  on  the 
face  of  it  the  proof  of  its  pedigree.  It  was  easy  enough  to  show 
that  this  belated  survival  from  the  pre-scientific  ages  was  as 
vain  a  thing  as  the  secret  of  Hermes  Trismegistus,  and  that 
the  pretended  proofs  existed  only  in  the  imagination  of  its 
dupes.  But  if  the  "magnetic"  fluid  did  not  exist,  the  Com- 
missioners were  dispensed  from  fulfilling  the  second  part  of 
their  commission — the  inquiry  into  its  utility.  "  A  thing  which 
does  not  exist,"  said  they,  "  can  have  no  utility."  The  logic 
seems  incontrovertible.  But  one  remembers  that  science 
has  been  defined  as  insatiable  curiosity,  and  it  would  have 
been  better  for  their  reputation  if  Bailly  and  his  colleagues 
had  not  allowed  their  intellectual  fastidiousness  to  stifle  their 
natural  instincts.  It  may  have  been  true  that  many  of  the 
patients  owed  their  improved  health  to  having  escaped  from 
the  ordinary  medical  treatment  of  the  day,  and  that,  in  any 
case,  medical  science  is  not  to  be  judged  by  results.  But 
these  were  dangerous  admissions  for  doctors  to  make. 
Some  one  maliciously  remarked  that  it  seemed  to  follow  that 
medicine  and  the  art  of  healing  were  two  distinct  sciences, 
without  any  necessary  connection  between  them.^  After  all, 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  physician  to  cure  disease,  and  if  imagi- 
nation could  be  proved  to  effect  that  end,  it  might  have  been 
worth  while  to  inquire  how  so  beneficial  an  agency  could 
best  be  directed.  The  Commissioners  might  then  have 
discovered  that  a  thing  which  does  not  exist  may  yet  possess 
utility. 

It  is  impossible  to  acquit  the  Commissioners  of  prejudice 
in  the  manner  in  which  they  fulfilled  their  task — the  prejudice 
not  only  of  doctors  faced  with  the  pretensions  of  quackery, 
but  of  men,  informed  by  the  new  spirit  of  enlightenment  and 
freedom,  confronted  with  the  futilities  of  the  old  order  and 
the  follies  of  mediaeval  superstition. 

It  may  be  pointed  out,  further,  that  there  was  a  curious 
infelicity  in  the  use  made  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  word 
'  Bergasse,  Considerations  siir  le  Magnciisme  animal,  p.  21. 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   SOMNAMBULISM      65 

*'  imaji^ination."  The  purely  subjective  sensations  experienced 
by  some  of  the  patients — the  stream  of  light  from  the 
operator's  fingers,  the  feelings  of  heat  and  cold,  the  smell  of 
sulphur — all  these  were  ascribed  by  them  to  physical  causes, 
though  the  most  superficial  investigation  of  the  actual  facts 
would  have  sufficed  to  convince  them  that  the  effects  did  not 
correspond  to  the  causes  alleged  The  word  "  imagination  " 
might  appropriately  have  occurred  in  this  connection,  where 
the  Commissioners,  unhappily  for  their  own  reputation,  did 
not  employ  it.  For  these  sensations  began  and  ended  in  the 
imagination.  They  corresponded  to  no  external  reality  and 
perished  in  the  moment  of  their  birth.  When  we  have  said 
that  they  were  imaginary,  we  have  said  all  that  needs  to  be 
said.  But  when  the  Commissioners  ascribed  the  crises  and 
the  cures  to  the  imagination  the  explanation  is  obviously 
incomplete.  It  may  be  that  here  also  the  starting-point  was 
to  be  sought  in  the  imagination.  But  the  process  did  not 
end  there.  The  effects  produced — whether  transitory  con- 
vulsions or  salutary  functional  changes — were  real  and 
frequently  of  a  more  or  less  permanent  character.  In  dis- 
missing them  from  consideration  as  merely  due  to  the  imagi- 
nation the  Commissioners  were  paying  themselves  with  words. 
The  numerous  replies  and  commentaries  which  appeared  in 
the  course  of  the  few  months  immediately  following  the  pub- 
lication of  the  reports  naturally  concerned  themselves  mainly 
with  this  question  of  the  reality  of  the  cures.  One  of  these, 
the  Supplement  aux  deux  Rapports,  as  shown  in  Chapter  I., 
furnished  a  notable  list  of-  cures  actually  effected  under  the 
Magnetic  treatment.  Naturally  enough  those  who  had  been 
cured  repudiated,  some  with  elaborate  irony,  some  with 
emphatically  expressed  contempt,  the  Commissioners'  explan- 
ation that  the  cures  were  due  to  imagination.     Says  one : — 

"Si  c'est  a  I'illusion  que  je  dois  la  sante  dont  je  crois  jouir,  je  supplie 
humblement  les  savants,  qui  voyent  si  clair,  de  ne  le  pas  detruire  ; 
qu'ils  illuminent  I'univers,  qu'ils  me  laissent  mon  erreur,  et  qu'il> 
permettent  a  ma  simplicite,  a  ma  faiblesse  et  a  mon  ignorance  do 
faire  usage  d'un  agent  invisible  et  qui  n'exisle  pas,  mais  qui  me  guerit" 
(P-  30). 


66     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

No  doubt  Deslon's  patients  were  deceived  in  their  belief  in 
the  invisible  fluid.  But  this  error  was  more  venial  and 
probably  less  mischievous  than  the  incuriosity  of  the 
Commissioners.  After  all,  whatever  the  explanation,  they 
had  been  cured. 

But  the  most  famous  and  probably  not  the  least  effective 
of  the  replies  was  the  Dontcs  (Tun  Provincial,  whose  author 
is  understood  to  have  been  M.  Servan,  formerly  advocate- 
<,reneral  to  the  Parlement  of  Grenoble.^  He  had  himself 
found  relief  through  Animal  Magnetism  after  twenty  years' 
ineffectual  treatment  by  ordinary  medicine,  and  on  this  he 
based  his  claim  to  be  heard.  He  begins  by  correcting  the 
Commissioners  on  one  or  two  matters  of  fact.  Their  Report 
gives  the  impression  that  the  convulsive  crises  were  a  general 
feature  of  the  cure;  but  in  the  provinces,  the  author  asserts, 
out  of  fifty  patients  not  more  than  five  or  six  will  experience 
convulsions,  and  those  of  a  sufficiently  mild  type.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  provincial,  again,  the  sneer  at  the  distinguished 
patients  seems  curiously  out  of  place.  His  heart  has  been 
warmed  by  seeing  gathered  round  the  Baquet  persons  of  all 
ranks  of  society — "  le  spectacle  de  I'dgalit^  originelle  des 
hommes  et  de  la  bienveillance  que  je  veux  leur  croire 
naturelle."  For  the  rest  he  criticises  with  shrewdness  and 
humour  the  conduct  of  the  inquiry  by  the  Commission, 
especially  their  refusal  to  judge  Animal  Magnetism  by 
its  cures,  and  their  insistence  on  the  production  of 
immediate  physiological  results.  In  his  view  the  facts  and 
the  reasonings  of  the  Report  are  alike  distorted  by  pro- 
fessional prejudice.  On  first  reading,  he  tells  the  Com- 
missioners, he  doubted  what  he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes ; 
then  he  began  to  doubt  what  the  Commissioners  had  seen — 
"  ensuite  j'allai  jusqu'  a  douter  sur  ce  que  vous  aviez  voulu 
voir."  And  this  delicate  inquiry  into  the  pretensions  of 
a  rival  system  had  been  entrusted,  he  points  out,  to  the 
hands  of  medical  men,  members  of  the  profession  which  had 
obstinately  refused  to  accept  the  proofs  of  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  ;  which  had  rejected  the  use  of  emetics  ;  which  had 
'  Deleuze,  Hisioire  Critique,  ii.  58. 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   SOMNAMBULISM      67 

treated  as  rubbish  the  quinine  for  which  they  now  ran- 
sacked a  whole  continent ;  which  had  made  itself  the  laughing- 
stock of  Europe  and  Asia  by  opposing  the  practice  of 
inoculation  ;  which,  in  a  word,  had  consistently  set  its  face 
against  every  new  thing — condemning  in  its  day  even  the 
peiits  pains  which  every  doctor  now  consumes  for  breakfast. 
Suppose,  the  provincial  suggests,  that  the  inquiry  had  been 
concerned  with  the  practice  of  medicine  instead  of  with  that 
of  Animal  Magnetism  ;  that  the  action  of  drugs  had  been 
judged  in  every  case  by  their  immediate  effects  ;  and  that  in 
the  treatment  of  cases  every  result  which  could  be  attributed 
to  the  imagination  or  to  Nature  had  been  eliminated ; 
suppose,  in  a  word,  that  the  Commissioners  themselves  had 
been  the  subject  of  inquiry,  and  the  judges  had  been  chosen 
from  the  ranks  of  their  own  patients — "juste  ciel,  quel 
rapport  ils  eussent  pu  faire  ! " 

Finally,  the  provincial  asks  indulgence  as  one  who  has 
suffered  much  for  twenty  years  at  the  hands  of  doctors  ;  they 
had  failed  to  cure  either  the  ills  of  Nature  or  the  ills  wrought 
by  their  own  remedies.  You  have  sought  to  dismiss  Animal 
Magnetism,  he  says  to  the  Commissioners,  as  an  illusion  : 
"  Non,  Messieurs,  non.  Vous  n'avez  point  assez  apprecie 
meme  une  chimere  qui  nous  garantit  de  vos  funestes  realites  : 
sous  ce  point  de  vue,  le  Magnetisme  animal  etoit  en  physique 
la  plus  utile  des  erreurs,  comme  peutetre  I'instinct  de  la 
bienveillance  Test  en  morale." 

The  other  side  of  the  question  is  presented  in  a  Report 
drawn  up  by  Thouret,  and  read  before  the  Royal  Society  of 
Medicine  early  in  November  of  the  same  year,  1784.^  The 
Report  is  based  upon  communications  received  from 
medical  men  in  the  provinces  relating  to  the  spread  of 
Animal  Magnetism.  Already  we  find  centres  of  treatment 
established  in  many  of  the  more  considerable  towns  in 
France.  Naturally  the  medical  correspondents  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  Medicine  have  no  good  to  say  of  the  new  treat- 
ment. If  they  were  inclined  to  look  upon  it  with  favour  they 
would    certainly    not    have    betrayed    their    unprofessional 

'  Reprinted  by  Burdin  and  Dubois  in  the  Hist,  acad.,  pp.  190-236. 


68     MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

weakness  at  headquarters.  The  Report  is  of  value  precisely 
because  these  interested  witnesses  have  so  few  definite  facts 
to  urge  against  the  treatment.  The  instances  cited  are 
mostly  on  the  principle  already  demonstrated  in  the  case 
of  Court  de  Gebelin — "  heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose." 
Court  de  Gebelin,  author  of  Le  Monde  primitif,  having 
been  seriously  ill  for  six  months,  and  finding  no  relief  in 
ordinary  medicine,  went  to  Mesmer  in  March,  1783,  and  soon 
afterwards  sent  a  circular  letter  to  the  subscribers  to  his 
book,  announcing  his  complete  restoration  to  health.  The 
physicians  were  unanimous  in  asserting  that  de  Gobelin  had 
never  been  really  ill.  A  year  later  he  had  to  return  to 
Mesmer  for  further  treatment,  and  died  in  May,  1784,  from 
kidney  disease.  The  physicians  were  now  agreed  that  he  had 
never  been  really  cured.  Thus  M.  Thers  relates  the  treat- 
ment of  a  case  of  dropsy  by  Magnetism.  The  cure  was 
complete  at  the  end  of  July  and  the  patient  died  in  October. 
He  infers  that  the  cure  was  only  apparent,  and  that  even 
the  appearance  was  due  to  the  milk  diet  prescribed. 
Another,  a  full-blooded  patient — siijet  a  une  humeur  vague — 
who  was  undergoing  treatment  by  cautery,  was  persuaded  to 
give  up  the  cautery  and  try  the  Baquet.  He  died  in  a  few 
days  of  apoplexy.  The  inference  is  that  the  substitution  of 
Animal  Magnetism  for  the  beneficent  processes  of  orthodox 
medicine  proved  fatal  to  the  patient.  There  is  but  one 
serious  testimony  against  Animal  Magnetism,  and  for  that 
M.  Thouret  had  to  go  as  far  as  Malta.  He  learns  from  an 
Italian  physician  that  six  physicians  and  surgeons  in  that 
island  had  selected  for  observation  twenty-five  patients  who 
were  undergoing  treatment  by  Magnetism.  The  selection 
included  persons  blind  from  birth,  cases  of  "obstruction," 
rheumatism,  epilepsy,  hypochondria,  paralysis,  hysteria,  and 
cancer  in  the  breast.  After  seventy  days'  treatment  some 
were  found  to  be  worse  ;  some  remained  the  same ;  a  few 
declared  themselves  better,  but  afterwards  relapsed  into  a 
worse  state  than  before.  It  is  obvious  that  such  a  statement 
from  prejudiced  witnesses,  dealing  with  patients  selected  by 
themselves,  is  worth  very  little.     The  comparative  method 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF  SOMNAMBULISM      69 

suggested  by  Mesmer  would  at  least  have  yielded  results  less 
open  to  question.  For  the  rest,  the  doctors  who  came  forward 
to  give  their  testimony  are  contented  with  vague  state- 
ments; they  have  never  seen  any  real  cures,  though  the  public 
unfortunately  still  flock  to  the  Baquet,  and  the  treatment  has 
the  regrettable  effect  of  giving  their  patients  a  distaste  for 
ordinary  medical  practice — e.g.,  the  cautery !  One  witness, 
however,  M.  Pujol,  more  candid  than  the  rest,  not  only 
admits  the  reality  of  some  of  the  cures,  but  admits  also  that 
they  cannot  be  attributed  wholly  to  the  vis  medical rix 
nalurcB.  It  is  the  enthusiasm  that  Mesmer  inspires,  said  he, 
which  effects  these  cures.  "  C'est  la  precisement  la  base  du 
mesmerisme  et  tout  le  secret  du  magnetisme  animal." 

M.  Pujol,  no  doubt,  came  very  near  the  truth,  as  near  as  the 
facts  then  known  would  permit.  For  at  that  date  there  was 
no  evidence  of  any  special  psychological  effects  produced  by 
the  mesmeric  treatment.  Probably  what  will  most  strike  the 
modern  student,  in  reading  the  Reports  of  1784,  is  that  the 
Commissioners,  in  the  course  of  the  five  months  over  which 
their  inquiry  extended,  found  so  little  to  excite  their  curiosity. 
Apart  from  its  curative  effects,  and  its  influence  on  the  animal 
functions,  hypnotism  at  the  present  day,  as  the  audience  of 
any  itinerant  lecturer  can  testify,  offers  many  features  of  a 
most  surprising  kind.  Amongst  the  more  salient  of  these 
effects  are  perversion  of  sensation  and  somnambulism.  Under 
the  influence  of  suggestion  the  operator  can  cause  a  good 
subject  to  see,  taste,  or  feel  whatever  he  chooses,  or  at  his  will 
can  suspend  sensation  altogether.  Many  of  us  have  seen  a 
boy  inhaling  pepper  or  ammonia  under  the  belief  that  it  was 
lavender-water,  without  sneezing  or  watering  of  the  eyes  ;  or, 
again,  have  seen  the  subject  suffer  the  pressure  of  a  finger  on 
his  eyeball  without  movement  of  any  kind,  and  endure  the 
contact  of  a  flame  or  a  smart  electric  shock  without  betraying 
any  sign  of  discomfort.  But  facts  such  as  these  the  Com- 
missioners of  1784  apparently  had  no  opportunity  of  observing. 
Indeed,  the  existence  of  induced  anaesthesia  does  not  seem  to 
have  attracted  notice  until  a  much  later  period.  It  was 
demonstrated  in  Paris  hospitals  in  1820  and  1821,  but  it  was 


70     MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

still  a  theme  of  hot  debate  in  our  own  country  thirty  years 
kiler,  and  it  was  not  finally  accepted  as  a  fact  until  the 
revival  of  hypnotism  in  the  present  generation. 

But  if  the  contempt  which  the  Commissioners  were  at  no 
pains  to  disguise  had  left  them  free  to  observe,  they  might 
have  made,  as  one  of  their  number  actually  did,  a  discovery 
of  another  kind.  The  state  of  induced  somnambulism  had 
been  recognised,  at  the  time  of  the  Commission's  investigation, 
only  by  one  observer,  Puysegur,  and  his  observations  were  not 
made  public  property  until  after  the  appearance  of  the 
Reports.  But  from  the  frequent  occurrence  in  the  course  of 
1785  of  the  somnambulic  trance,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
state,  though  unrecognised,  was  not  uncommon  even  before 
that  date.  And  de  Jussieu  actually  records  in  his  Report, 
though  without  appreciating  its  significance,  a  case  observed 
by  himself: — 

"  A  young  man  who  was  frequently  in  a  state  of  crisis  became  in  that 
state  quite  silent,  and  would  go  quickly  throuj^h  the  hall,  often  touchinj^ 
the  patients.  These  regular  touches  of  his  often  brought  about  a 
crisis,  of  which  he  would  take  control  without  allowing  any  one  to 
interfere.  When  he  returned  to  his  normal  condition  he  would  talk 
again,  but  lie  did  not  remember  anytiiing  that  had  taken  place,  and  no 
longer  knew  how  to  magnetise.  I  draw  no  conclusion  from  this  fact, 
of  which  I  was  a  witness  on  several  occasions." 

If  the  other  Commissioners  had  proved  themselves  as  free 
from  prejudice  as  their  colleague,  the  Reports  of  1784  might 
have  been  more  fruitful.  The  discovery  of  the  state  of 
artificial  somnambulism  and  of  the  remarkable  effects  of 
hypnotic  suggestion  would  have  been  no  unworthy  addition 
even  to  Lavoisier's  fame. 

Whatever  effect  the  Reports  of  1784  may  have  had  in  dis- 
crediting Animal  Magnetism  in  the  eyes  of  the  Faculty  and 
the  "  intellectuals  "  generally,  they  seem  to  have  done  little  to 
check  its  progress  in  the  country  at  large.  Already  Mesmer 
is  said  to  have  instructed  300  pupils,  most  of  them  physicians 
or  men  of  science,  and  Deslon  claimed  160  medical  pupils.^ 
The    Central    Society    of    Harmony    at    about    this    date 

'  Supplement  aux  deux  Rapports,  p.  80. 


THE   DISCOVERY  OF  SOMNAMBULISM      71 

numbered  430  persons,  of  whom  90  were  physicians.^  Most 
towns  in  France  of  any  importance,  except,  indeed,  as  the 
authors  of  the  Histoire  acadcuiiqiie  tell  us,  the  University 
towns,  had  in  1784  a  centre  for  Magnetic  treatment.^  The 
fame  of  Mesmer  had  indeed  spread  over  the  civilised  world, 
and  we  hear  of  societies  for  studying  Animal  Magnetism 
being  founded  at  Turin,  Berne,  Malta,  and  in  the  French 
West  Indies.3  It  had  also  spread  to  Germany  and  Sweden. 
Some  of  the  provincial  Societies  of  Harmony  attained  to 
considerable  proportions  ;  that  at  Strasbourg,  founded  in 
1785  by  Puysegur,  appears  to  have  lasted  at  any  rate  to  the 
Revolution,  and  published  three  volumes  oi  Proceedings. 

The  Marquis  de  Puysegur  was  one  of  those  who  had  paid 
his  hundred  louis  to  learn  what  Mesmer  had  to  teach.  In  the 
early  spring  of  1784,  after  having  attended  the  Master's 
course  of  instructions,  but  having  failed,  as  he  tells  us  later, 
to  apprehend  the  great  secret,  he  retired  to  his  own  estate  of 
Busancy,  near  Soissons,  proposing,  though  without  any  great 
hope  of  a  favourable  result,  to  employ  the  methods  he  had 
learnt  for  the  relief  of  the  suffering.  From  the  first  he  viewed 
with  dislike  and  suspicion  the  crisis  attended  with  violent 
convulsions  which  he  had  witnessed  at  Mesmer's  establish- 
ment, and  deplored  the  discredit  which  the  spectacle  of  this 
enfer  a  convulsions,  as  he  calls  it,  had  brought  upon  the 
practice  of  Animal  Magnetism. 

He  attributes  these  violent  crises  in  the  first  instance  to 
the  circumstance  that  Mesmer  had  too  many  patients  to  look 
after  single-handed,  and  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  allow  the 
crisis  to  work  itself  out  without  the  guidance  and  the  quieting 
influence  of  the  operator.4  Accident  revealed  to  Puysegur 
other  characteristics  of  the  crisis  which  the  convulsions  and 
general  disorder  of  the  Salle  aux  Crises  had  served  to  mask. 

'  Dureau,  op.  cil.,  p.  33. 

'  Hist,  acad.,  p.  218. 

3  Bergasse,  Considerations  sur  le  Magnetisme  animal. 

*  Memoires  pour  servir,  &c.  (second  edition),  p.  no.  The  first  edition 
appeared  in  December,  1784,  and  Puysegur,  therefore,  in  his  con- 
demnation of  the  crisis,  anticipaled  Bailly  and  his  colleagues,  just  as  in 
his  discovery  of  somnambulism  he  anticipated  de  Jussieu. 


72     MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

His  first  patients  were  two  women  on  his  estate,  who  were 
suffering  from  toothache.  His  success  in  curing  them  with- 
out crisis,  and  after  manipulation  in  each  case  for  a  few 
minutes  only,  encouraged  him  to  essay  the  treatment  of  a 
young  peasant  of  twenty-three  named  Victor,  who  had  been 
confined  to  his  bed  for  four  days  with  inflammation  of  the 
lungs  {fluxion  de  poitrinc).  Puysegur  visited  the  patient 
at  8  p.m.,  and  found  the  fever  already  diminishing  : — 

"  After  having  made  him  get  up,"  he  writes  to  a  correspondent,  "  I 
magnetised  him.  What  was  my  surprise,  after  seven  or  eight  minutes, 
to  sec  the  man  go  to  sleep  quietly  in  my  arms,  without  any  convulsion 
or  pain.  I  accelerated  the  crisis  and  brought  on  delirium  ;  he  talked, 
discussed  his  business  aloud.  When  it  seemed  to  me  that  his  thougiits 
were  affecting  him  for  the  worse  I  tried  to  divert  them  to  lighter 
tlieines  ;  the  attempt  cost  me  no  great  trouble  ;  I  soon  saw  him  quite 
happy  in  the  belief  that  he  was  shooting  for  a  prize,  dancing  at  a  fete, 
and  so  on." 

Puysdgur  was  struck  by  the  fact  that  this  simple-minded 
peasant,  "  le plus  bornd  du  pays,"  who  in  the  natural  state 
hardly  knew  how  to  converse  with  his  superiors,  assumed  in 
the  trance  an  altogether  different  character.  He  was  able 
even  to  speak  freely  and  in  appropriate  language.  In  his 
normal  state  he  could  find  no  words  to  express  his  gratitude 
to  Puj'scgur  and  the  Marquise,  but  when  somnambulic  his 
tongue  was  loosed.  Further,  his  intelligence  was  enhanced  : 
"quand  il  est  en  crise,  je  ne  connois  rien  de  plus  prof ond,  de 
plus  prudent  et  de  plus  clairvoyant!'  Puysegur  soon  found 
to  his  astonishment  that  his  patient  when  awake  could 
recollect  nothing  of  what  had  taken  place  in  the  trance. 
One  day  Victor  had  in  the  trance  spoken  freely  of  his 
personal  affairs,  and  had  entrusted  to  Puyscgur's  keeping  a 
paper  of  some  importance.  The  following  day  Puysegur 
found  him  in  a  state  of  some  distress,  and  learnt  on  ques- 
tioning him  that  he  had  been  searching  vainly  all  day  for 
this  very  paper.  Another  patient,  a  young  Parisian  student 
of  nineteen,  refused  to  believe  that  he  had  really  walked  about 
in  the  state  of  somnambulism,  and,  to  test  the  matter,  tied 
himself  with  elaborately  knotted  ropes  to  his  chair.     As  soon 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF  SOMNAMBULISM      73 

as  he  was  entranced  Puysegur  made  him  untie  the  ropes  and 
seat  himself  in  another  chair,  and  was  much  astonished  at  the 
young  fellow's  incredulous  stare  when  he  came  to  himself. 

"  The  line  of  demarcation,"  says  he,  "  is  so  complete  that  these  two 
states  may  ahnost  be  described  as  two  different  existences.  I  have 
noticed  that  in  the  magnetic  state  the  patients  have  a  clear  recollection 
of  all  their  doings  in  the  normal  state  ;  but  in  the  normal  state  they  can 
recall  nothing  of  what  has  taken  place  in  the  magnetic  condition.'' ' 

The  state  of  induced  somnambulism,  with  the  remarkable 
division  of  memory  described  by  Puysegur,  is,  of  course,  fully 
recognised  at  the  present  day,  though  it  has  taken  more 
than  three  generations  to  establish  its  existence.  But 
Puysegur  found  in  his  somnambulic  patients  many  wonderful 
faculties  of  a  more  dubious  kind.  Most  of  them,  he  tells  us. 
were  able  to  diagnose  the  nature  of  their  ailments,  to  pre- 
scribe the  appropriate  treatment,  and  to  foretell  the  course 
of  the  disease  and  the  date  of  the  final  cure.  A  single  illus- 
tration must  suffice.  Henri  Joseph  Claude  Joly  was  a  young 
man  of  nineteen.  Up  to  the  age  of  seventeen  he  had  been  a 
student  at  the  College  of  Louis  le  Grand,  in  Paris,  until  his 
increasing  deafness — due  to  a  severe  illness  in  his  childhood 
— forced  him  to  relinquish  his  studies.  He  came  to  Puysegur 
for  treatment  on  Wednesday,  October  13,  1784.  He  went 
into  trance  on  the  14th.  On  the  15th  he  began  to  tell 
Puysegur  about  the  nature  of  his  ailment  and  its  probable 
course.  He  explained  that  he  had  a  gathering  {depot)  in  his 
head,  and  would  suffer  much  before  it  could  be  discharged. 
If  it  discharged  into  the  throat  he  would  die,  but  if  by  the 
nose,  he  would  be  cured  and  would  regain  his  hearing.  He 
was  not  at  the  moment — the  third  day  of  the  treatment — 
sufficiently  advanced  to  say  more.  On  the  Sunday  evening, 
however,  he  felt  that  the  gathering  was  dividing  in  half,  and 
announced  that  it  would  discharge  by  the  nose  in  two 
portions — one  on  the  Monday,  the  second  somewhat  later. 
In  effect,  on  his  return  from  a  ride  on  the  following  day,  Joly 
announced  that  there  had  been  a  copious  discharge  of  matter 
'  Memoires  pour  Servir  (ed.  of  1809),  vol.  i.  p.  103. 


74     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

from  his  nose.  On  the  Wednesday  morning,  in  the  trance, 
he  announced  that  the  second  discharge  would  take  place  by 
the  nose  on  Thursday  evening,  but  that  he  would  suffer  much 
in  the  interval,  and  would  have  severe  crises  every  two  hours. 
The  predicted  crises,  which  took  the  form  of  violent  convul- 
sions, punctually  fulfilled  themselves,  somewhat  to  Puysc-^ur's 
alarm,  every  two  hours  (with  the  intermission  of  some  hours 
at  night,  whilst  the  patient  slept).  The  crisis  due  at  7  p.m. 
on  Thursday  came  half  an  hour  late,  and  shortly  after  it  had 
ceased  Puyscgur  and  his  friends,  who  were  watching  in  the 
room  next  to  that  in  which  the  patient  lay  in  bed,  were 
aroused  by  a  slight  movement,  and  found  that  the  predicted 
discharge  was  just  taking  place.  From  that  moment  the 
patient  was  cured,  and  left  with  the  intention  of  resuming  his 
studies.  The  existence  of  the  ailment  and  the  completeness 
of  the  cure  in  this  case  are  formally  attested,  under  the 
municipal  seal  of  Dormans  in  Champagne,  the  patient's 
native  place,  by  the  mayor  of  the  town  and  many  of  the 
principal  inhabitants,  including  several  seigneurs,  cures, 
councillors,  and  a  procureur  fiscal. 

Another  remarkable  faculty  which  Pu}'scgur  claimed  for 
his  somnambulists  was  that  of  being  able  to  diagnose  and 
prescribe  for  the  ailments  of  others.  Victor,  the  first 
somnambule,  was  employed  regularly  by  Puys(^gur  in  con- 
sultation on  the  other  patients  ;  Puysdgur  almost  regrets  his 
cure,  since  it  will  mean  the  loss  of  his  advice.  But  other 
somnambulic  clairvoyants  were  soon  found  to  take  his  place. 
Joly,  who  was  frequently  employed  in  this  way  during  the 
few  days  of  his  own  treatment,  explained  to  Puyscgur  that 
his  diagnosis  was  founded  on  actual  sensations  experienced 
by  himself  in  the  part  of  his  body  corresponding  to  the  part 
affected  in  the  others.  In  the  same  way,  he  explained,  the 
power  of  predicting  the  course  of  his  own  malady  rested  not 
on  any  process  of  reasoning,  but  on  what  might  be  called 
presentiment  {pressensation). 

An  illustration  may  be  quoted  to  show  how  this  claim  to 
diagnose  maladies  impressed  spectators.  M.  Cloquet,  a 
collector    of    taxes  in    Soissons,  had  at  Puysegur's  request 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF  SOMNAMBULISM      75 

come  over  in  June  to  see  the  Magnetic  treatment.  After 
watching  for  some  time  the  somnambules  going  about  and 
prescribing  for  the  patients,  he  resolved  to  test  the  matter  on 
his  own  account : — 

"  I  got  one  of  the  '  doctors '  (so.  somnambules)  to  touch  me,"  he 
writes.  "  She  was  a  woman  of  about  fifty.  I  had  certainly  told  no  one 
the  nature  of  my  ailment.  After  paying  particular  attention  to  my 
head,  the  woman  said  that  I  often  suffered  pain  there,  and  that  I  had 
constantly  a  buzzing  in  my  ears — this  was  true.  A  young  man  who 
had  been  an  incredulous  spectator  of  my  experiment  then  submitted 
himself  for  examination.  He  was  told  that  he  suffered  from  the 
stomach,  and  that  he  had  obstructions  {engorgements)  in  the  abdomen, 
arising  from  an  illness  which  he  had  had  some  years  previously.  All 
this,  he  told  us,  was  correct.  But,  not  content  with  this  soothsayer,  he 
went  straight  away  to  another  '  doctor,'  20  feet  distant,  and  was  told 
exactly  the  same.  I  never  saw  anybody  sodumfounded  with  astonish- 
ment as  this  young  man,  who  had  assuredly  come  to  ridicule  rather  than 
to  be  convinced."  • 

For  all  those  who  accepted  Animal  Magnetism  there  was 
at  this  date  but  one  theory,  variously  modified,  to  account 
for  the  phenomena — the  theory  of  a  fluid.  By  Jumelin  and 
de  Jussieu  this  fluid  was  identified  with  the  vital  heat,  or 
rather  with  the  cause  of  vital  heat.  But  in  de  Jussieu's 
detailed  statement  his  theory  seems  to  be  well  nigh  as  all- 
embracing  as  Mesmer's  own.  The  principle  which  gives 
movement  to  the  whole  Universe,  he  says,  becomes  manifest 
in  a  living  body  by  the  vital  heat.  And  it  is  from  the  efforts 
to  produce  equilibrium  of  this  fluid  that  all  the  manifesta- 
tions of  Animal  Magnetism  are  due.  Puysegur  re-states  the 
theory,  but  it  is  essentially  the  same.  The  earth  and  all  the 
celestial  bodies,  he  writes,  rotating  continually  in  the  midst 
of  the  universal  fluid,  continually  generate  electricity.  This 
electricity  is  modified  according  to  the  nature  of  the  sub- 
stance which  receives  it,  and  especially  bv  the  human  body, 
which  may  be  described  as  the  most  perfect  electric  machine 
in    existence.2      This   is    the  principle  of  movement  in   all 

'  From  a  contemporary  letter,  quoted  by  Bcrtrand,  Du  Magnetistne 
animal,  p.  222. 

=  Memoires  (2nd  ed.),  1809,  vol.  i.  p.  25.  The  first  edition  was  pub- 
lished in  1784. 


76     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

nature — the  principle  of  chemical  affinity,  the  principle  of 
reproduction  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdom.  He 
illustrates  its  special  action  in  disease  by  various  metaphors. 
A  sick  person  in  the  state  of  somnambulism  is  like  a  magnetic 
needle  replaced  on  its  pivot.  Or,  again,  the  healthy  man  is 
like  a  vase  in  connection  with  an  inexhaustible  reservoir  of 
the  fluid.  The  channel  of  connection  is  unobstructed,  and  the 
vase  is  always  full  to  the  utmost  limit  of  its  capacity.  In 
the  sick  man  the  channel  with  the  universal  is  obstructed. 
The  magnetist  opens  a  channel  between  himself  and  the  sick 
man,  who  then  receives  his  fill,  while  the  level  in  the  other 
remains  unaltered.  The  fluid  itself  Puysegur  is  inclined  to 
identify  with  dephlogisticated  air,  the  recent  discovery  which 
had  set  the  scientific  world  in  a  ferment. 

Acting  on  the  idea  that  it  was  only  necessary  to  open  a 
channel  in  order  to  set  the  fluid  in  motion,  Puysegur  pn> 
cccdcd  to  magnetise  a  large  tree,  to  serve  as  a  Baquet,  and 
attached  to  it  a  cord  for  the  patients  to  fasten  round  their 
bodies.  The  experiment  was  a  great  success.  Writing  on 
the  17th  of  May  to  his  brother,  he  says  that  more  than 
1 30  persons  had  congregated  round  it  that  morning :  "  The 
tree  is  the  best  Baquet  possible ;  every  leaf  radiates  health  ; 
and  all  who  come  experience  its  salutary  influence." 
M.  Cloquet,  already  quoted,  gives  us  a  contemporary  picture. 
Says  he : — 

"  Picture  to  yourself  the  village  place.  In  the  middle  is  an  elm,  with 
a  spring  of  clear  water  at  its  foot.  It  is  a  huge  old  tree,  but  still  green 
and  vigorous  ;  it  is  a  tree  held  in  respect  by  the  elders,  who  are  wont 
to  meet  at  its  foot  on  holiday  mornings  to  talk  over  the  crops  and  the 
market  prospects.  It  is  a  tree  dear  to  the  young  folk,  who  assemble 
there  in  summer  evenings  for  their  rustic  dances.  This  tree,  mag- 
netised from  time  immemorial  by  the  love  of  pleasure,  is  now 
magnetised  by  the  love  of  humanity.  M.  Puysegur  and  his  brotlier 
have  given  it  a  healing  virtue  which  penetrates  everywhere." 

He  goes  on  to  describe  the  stone  benches,  on  which  the 
patients  sit  round  the  tree  ;  the  encircling  rope  ;  the  chain 
made  by  interlacing  thumbs  ;  and,  the  climax  of  the  drama, 
Puysegur  choosing  out  some  of  the  patients,  and  sending 


i 


THE   DISCOVERY  OF  SOMNAMBULISM      jy 

them  into  the  somnambulic  state  by  the  touch  of  his  hand  or 
the  direction  of  his  magic  wand. 

But  Puysegur  soon  saw  reason  to  modify  the  purely 
physical  theory  which  we  find  set  out  in  Mesmer's  own 
writings.  In  his  address  at  the  foundation  of  the  Society  of 
Harmony  at  Strasbourg  in  1785  he  tells  us  that  after  attend- 
ing Mesmer's  expensive  course  of  instruction  he  departed 
almost  as  ignorant  as  he  came.  He  had  learnt  the  theory  of 
Animal  Magnetism  and  the  kinship  of  man  with  the  planets, 
but  no  more.  His  brother,  who  had  attended  the  same 
course,  had  soon  discovered  the  real  principle  at  work,  but 
felt  himself  bound  in  honour  to  Mesmer  to  guard  the  secret. 

It  was  Puysegur's  first  somnambule,  Victor,  who  revealed  to 

him  the  mystery.  The  whole  secret  of  Animal  Magnetism, 
Puysegur  assured  his  hearers,  lay  in  these  two  words — Croyez 
et  Veuillez — Believe  and  Will.^  In  his  later  work  the  doctrine  \ 
of  a  universal  fluid  has  become  already  only  a  working 
hypothesis.  It  may  or  may  not  be  true.  The  one  thing 
which  is  certain  is  the  existence  of  a  force  by  which  the  soul 
can  work  upon  the  bodily  organism.  As  God  directs  and 
sustains  the  motion  of  the  planets,  so  man  directs  and 
sustains  the  motion  of  his  own  body.  Further,  by  the 
exercise  of  his  will,  the  magnetist  can  influence  the  principle 
of  life  in  another.  "  Animal  Magnetism  does  not  consist  in 
the  action  of  one  body  upon  another,  but  in  the  action  of  the 
thought  upon  the  vital  principle  of  the  body."  ^  Its  action 
upon  the  patient  consists  in  reinforcing  this  vital  principle 
in  his  organism.  For  this  reason  it  is  not  necessary  for  the 
operator  to  know  the  nature  of  the  malady,  or  even  the 
internal  anatomy  of  the  body.  It  is  enough  that  he  should 
have  a  firm  will  to  influence  the  principle  of  life.  It  is 
thought  which  moves  matter,  even  as  the  Strasbourg  Society 
inscribed  on  the  walls  of  its  hall  of  treatment  Virgil's  mighty 
line — 

"  Mens  agitat  molem  et  magno  se  corpore  miscet." 


Dm  Magneiisme  animal  (Paris,  1807).     See  esp.  pp.  30,  142,  149. 
Ibid.,  p.  163. 


78     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

This  recognition  of  the  part  played  by  the  will  in  the 
process  of  Magnetism  was,  then,  the  great  secret  on  which 
Mesmer  set  so  high  a  price,  and  which,  if  we  believe  Puyscgur, 
he  refused  to  surrender  to  those  who  had  paid  the  price.  But 
the  book  in  which  Puyscgur  announced  this  modification  of 
his  theory  was  not  published  until  1807  ;  and  most  of  his 
contemporaries,  not  only  in  1785,  but  later,  even  if  they 
shared  his  views  on  the  need  of  a  directing  will,  emphasised 
by  preference  the  physical  side  of  the  theory.  They  accumu- 
lated proofs  of  the  analogy  of  the  fluid  operating  in  Animal 
Magnetism  with  that  supposed  to  emanate  from  the  mineral 
magnet  and  with  the  other  fluids  known  to  the  science  of  the 
clay — electric,  light  and  heat  bearing.  Some  somnambules 
could  see  the  fluid  radiating  as  a  brilliant  shaft  of  light  from 
the  person  of  the  operator  ;  one  of  Tardy  de  Montravel's 
subjects  saw  his  hair  shining  like  threads  of  gold.  They 
would  see  it  radiating  from  trees  and  other  living  objects, 
and  would  note  differences  in  colour  and  brightness  according 
to  the  diverse  sources.  There  was  a  magnetic  effluence  from 
the  sun,  and  yet  another  differing  in  glory  from  the  earth. 
The  fluid  could  be  seen  passing  into  water  or  milk  ;  the 
liquid  would  then  become  luminous  ;  magnetised  milk  could 
be  retained  by  a  stomach  which  would  at  once  reject  all 
other  forms  of  nourishment.  Iron  was  found  to  conduct  the 
magnetic  current ;  glass,  Puyscgur  found,  would  even  augment 
it ;  wax  or  copper  dispersed  it,  and  silver  reflected  it  back 
upon  the  rod.  Mesmer  had  already  discovered  that  the  fluid 
was  reflected  by  a  mirror  ;  and  we  know  from  old  ecclesiastical 
carvings  that  the  baleful  stream  from  the  eyes  of  the  basilisk 
could  by  means  of  a  mirror  be  turned  back  on  the  reptile  to 
its  own  destruction.  But  Tardy  de  Montravel  bettered  this 
observation.  It  was  not  the  glass  of  the  mirror,  which  was 
already  proved  to  act  as  a  conductor,  but  the  metal  backing 
which  operated  in  the  reflection. ^ 

Of  other  phenomena  described  by  the  early  Magnetists 
many  were  grouped  under  the  general  name  of  rapport.  The 
idea  of  a  reciprocal  influence  between  physician  and  patient, 
*  E%sai  sur  la  Theoric  du  Somnambulisme  magnetique,  1785. 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   SOMNAMBULISM       79 

as  shown  in  a  previous  chapter,  was  a  prominent  feature  in 
the  sympathetic  system.  Mesmer's  early  disciples,  inheriting 
the  older  tradition,  naturally  found  proofs  of  rapport 
amongst  their  subjects  ;  for  in  this  study,  whether  we  call 
it  by  the  name  of  Animal  Magnetism,  Hypnotism,  or 
Suggestion,  the  student  always  finds  what  he  looks  for. 
As  soon  as  the  practice  of  Magnetism  passed  from  the 
public  phase,  with  which  it  began  in  Mesmer's  Salle  aux 
Crises,  and  individual  treatment  became  the  rule,  rapport 
became  prominent.  The  magnetic  subject,  it  was  soon  found, 
could  hear  no  voice  but  that  of  the  operator,  could  feel  no 
touch  and  obey  no  influence  but  his.  Puysegur,  indeed,  gives 
the  existence  of  exclusive  rapport  between  operator  and 
subject  as  the  surest  test  of  the  magnetic  state.i 

Other  surprising  phenomena  attested  by  the  early  Magnet- 
ists  are  ascribed  to  the  same  fluid.  The  subject,  it  was  found, 
in  the  somnambulic  state  would  obey  the  slightest  gesture  or 
even  the  silent  will  of  the  operator.  She  would  move  about 
the  room  and  stay  her  steps,  in  accordance  with  his  un- 
expressed desire.  She  would  go  up  to  an  object  and  touch 
it  if  the  operator  merely  directed  his  eyes  towards  it.^  Some 
of  the  spectators  asserted  that  Puysegur  claimed  this  "  magnetic 
mobility"  as  due  to  thought-reading  on  the  part  of  the 
subject.  "Not  at  all,"  said  Puysegur  ;  "when  Madeleine  obeys 
my  silent  will,  it  is  the  fluid  directed  by  my  will  that  causes 
the  movement;  she  is  herself  only  an  animated  magnet."  3 

One  of  Tardy's  subjects  would  go  through  the  town  with 
her  eyes  closed,  and  guide  herself  safely.  Further,  when  in 
the  trance  she  would  examine  objects  handed  to  her  by 
placing  them  on  the  pit  of  the  stomach.  Her  sense  of 
hearing  was  also  transferred  to  the  same  region  ;  and  Tardy 
found  it  necessary  to  address  his  remarks  to  the  epigastrium. 
Tardy  is  unable,  however,  to  hit  upon  a  satisfactory  explana- 
ation  of  this  curious  phenomenon.4 

'  Memoires,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  192.     See  also  Tardy,  op,  cit.,  p.  67. 
'  Puysegur,  Da  Magnetisme  animal,  p.  20. 
3  Mcnwircs,  vol.  ii.  pp.  12,  15,  &c. 
♦  Op.  at.,  p.  66,  &c. 


So     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

No  limit  was  assigned  by  the  early  Magnetists  to  the 
operation  of  the  fluid.  Some  of  the  peasants  who  came  to 
see  Puysegur  at  Busancy  fell  into  a  crisis  as  soon  as  they  set 
out  on  the  road  when  still  a  great  way  off.  A  manifest  proof, 
says  Fuys<^gur,  of  the  efficacy  of  the  will  in  directing  the  fluid 
even  at  a  considerable  distance.^  In  October,  1785,  one 
Heatrix,  a  captain  of  artillery  stationed  at  Metz,  was  directed 
by  one  of  his  patients  to  magnetise  her  at  midnight  when  she 
was  asleep  in  her  own  house.  The  husband,  who  carefully 
watched  the  while,  inferred,  from  the  remarks  made  by  his 
wife  and  her  movements,  that  she  was  in  a  veritable  crisis. 
Captain  Beatrix  is  quite  satisfied  that  the  crisis  was  due  to 
his  own  magnetism  from  a  distance,  and  Puysegur  is  inclined 
to  agree.2 

Yet  another  theory  of  the  physical  forces  at  work  in  the 
induced  trance  was  advanced  at  a  somewhat  later  period  by 
a  medical  man  who  rejects  the  term  "  Animal  Magnetism  " 
altogether.  J,  H.  Desire  Petetin,  a  doctor  practising  at 
Lyons,  was  perpetual  president  of  the  Medical  Society  of 
that  city,  and  held  several  appointments  from  the  Govern- 
ment. Shortly  after  his  death,  in  February,  1808,  was 
published  his  book,  J^lectricite  animale^  in  which  he  records 
observations  which  he  had  made  for  many  years  past  on 
several  cases  of  spontaneous  catalepsy.  The  disease  is,  of 
course,  a  rare  one,  and  it  is  remarkable,  as  Bertrand  has 
pointed  out,  that  a  single  provincial  practitioner  should  have 
come  across  no  fewer  than  eight  cases  in  one  district.  It  is 
but  one  more  illustration  of  the  truth  that  in  this  region  the 
student  always  finds  what  he  seeks.  In  no  other  field  of 
human  activity  can  the  imagination  with  equal  truth  be 
styled  creative.  For  the  rest,  Petetin's  patients  would,  no 
doubt,  nowadays  be  classed  as  hysterical — they  were  all 
women,  mostly  under  twenty  years  of  age. 

The  phenomena  which  Petetin's  subjects  presented  were 
very  remarkable.  In  the  cataleptic  state  the  patient  generally 
remains  motionless,  and  gives  often  hardly  any  sign  of  life  at 

■  Quoted  by  Bertrand,  Du  Magnelii>me  animal  en  France,  p.  xxi. 

"  Letter  to  Puysegur,  quoted  in  Du  Magnetisme  animal  (1807),  p.  279. 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   SOMNAMBULISM      8i 

all,  pulse  and  respiration  being  alike  almost  imperceptible. 
Petetin  found  that  his  patients,  though  they  would  show  no 
signs  of  intelligence  if  questions  were  directed  in  the  usual 
way  to  their  ears,  would  answer  either  by  voice  or  gesture  if 
the  speaker  addressed  himself  to  the  pit  of  the  stomach,  the 
tips  of  the  fingers,  or  sometimes  even  the  toes.  Not  only  so, 
but  they  would  appear  to  taste,  smell,  and  even  see  with 
those  parts  of  the  body.  Petetin  gives  details  of  several 
occasions  on  which  his  patients  were  able  to  describe  medals, 
letters,  playing  cards,  and  other  small  objects  placed  under 
the  bedclothes  on  the  epigastric  region,  or  even  hidden  in  the 
pockets  of  the  interlocutor.  His  explanation  of  these  curious 
manifestations  is  again  a  purely  physical  one,  and  rests  on  a 
theory  of  Animal  Electricity  which,  from  our  standpoint,  does 
not  differ  essentially  from  the  hypothesis  of  Animal  Magnet- 
ism. His  observations  seemed  to  afford  him  abundant  proof 
that  the  phenomena  depended  on  electrical  action.  He  gives 
a  list  of  simple  experiments  to  demonstrate  the  electrical 
attraction  and  repulsion  exercised  by  the  physician's  hand 
on  that  of  the  patient,  (p.  293).  Again,  he  found  that  the 
most  convenient  way  to  speak  to  the  patient  was  for  the 
interlocutor  to  place  one  hand  on  the  stomach  (duly  covered 
with  clothes)  and  to  address  his  remarks  to  the  finger-tips  of 
his  free  hand.  The  human  body  being  of  course  a  conductor, 
the  patient  would  then  hear  and  reply.  The  same  results 
would  follow  if  the  operator  stood  at  the  remote  end  of  a 
chain  of  persons  holding  each  other's  hands,  of  whom  the 
last  only  touched  the  patient.  But  if  a  stick  of  wax  or  a 
plate  of  glass  were  placed  in  the  circuit,  communication  at 
once  ceased.  Again,  the  patient  would  not  hear  music 
played  close  to  her  by  any  person  not  actually  touching 
her.  But  if  the  performer  were  connected  with  the  patient 
by  a  moistened  thread,  she  would  hear  music  even  in  a 
distant  part  of  the  house,  and  would  respond  to  questions 
addressed  to  the  far  end  of  the  thread. 

The  experiments  in  "  seeing  "  with  the  pit  of  the  stomach 
on  one  occasion,  Petetin  tells  us,  so  amazed  and  affirighted 
the  spectators  that  calm  was  not  restored  until,  by  showing 


82     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

that  objects  wrapped  up  in  wax  or  silk  could  not  be  "  seen," 
he  satisfied  them  that  the  phenomena  had  a  natural  cause 
and  were  not  due  to  the  intervention  of  demons. 

Petetin's  explanation  of  the  transference  of  sensation  to 
the  pit  of  the  stomach  is  that  the  vital  fluid,  when  driven 
by  the  disease  or  the  operator's  hand  from  the  external 
organs  of  sensation,  is  concentrated  upon  the  brain  and 
nervous  system.^  As  an  illustration  of  the  increased 
vitality  of  the  brain  which  results  in  certain  patients,  he- 
mentions  the  case  of  a  girl  of  sixteen  upon  whose  memory 
he  made  in  the  course  of  an  attack  of  spontaneous 
somnambulism  the  following  experiment.  Holding  his 
finger  over  the  patient's  stomach,  he  read  to  her,  sans 
artiailer,  a  piece  of  poetry,  with  which  she  was  not 
acquainted,  consisting  of  more  than  fifty  verses.  She  then 
immediately  at  his  request  declaimed  the  piece  without  a 
single  mistake.  Her  memory  in  the  normal  state  was  not 
above  the  average,  and  to  learn  the  piece  by  heart 
would  probably,  he  tells  us,  have  cost  her  two  days'  work 
(p.  256). 

Another  notable  figure  in  the  history  of  Animal 
Magnetism  at  this  date  was  Deleuze,  author  of  the 
Histoire    critique,    which    made     its    appearance    in     181 3. 


'  The  supposed  faculty  of  seeing,  hearing,  and  smelling  with  the  pit 
of  the  stomach  can  in  most  cases  be  explained  as  due  to  the  hciglitened 
sensibility  of  the  special  senses,  which  is  a  not  infrequent  accompani- 
ment of  the  trance,  or  to  enhanced  susceptibility  to  gestures  or 
changes  of  tone.  It  is  noteworthy  that  most  of  Petetin's  experiments 
in  "  seeing"  were  conducted  with  patients  who  were  unable  to  speak, 
and  that  the  test  consisted  in  addressing  to  them  a  long  string  of 
questions.  Thus  :  "  Is  this  which  I  hold  in  my  hand  made  of  metal  ?" 
"  Yes."  "  Is  it  silver  ? — gold  ? — lead  ? — antimony  ? — manganese  ? " 
"No."  "Is  it  platinum?"  "Yes."  The  almost  inevitable  sub- 
conscious change  of  tone  would  be  enough  to  give  the  required  cue. 
And  in  the  only  case  of  the  kind  where  the  question  was  asked  by  a 
person  ignorant  of  the  proper  answer  no  response  was  elicited   (p.  188). 

But  one  of  Petetin's  patients  retained  in  the  cataleptic  state  tbe  use 
of  her  voice,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  explain  some  of  the  results  which  he 
records  as  having  witnessed  in  her  case.  If  accurately  reported,  the 
results  may  have  been  due  to  thought-transference. 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF   SOMNAMBULISM      83 

Deleuze  had  before  the  Revolution  been  Assistant 
Naturalist  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  and  was  the  author 
of  one  or  two  works  on  science  and  philosophy.  Though 
he  was  not  a  medical  man  his  scientific  training  gives  his 
testimony  some  importance.  His  first  acquaintance  with 
Animal  Magnetism  dated  from  1785,  and  by  many  years' 
experience  he  satisfied  himself  of  the  truth  of  the  facts 
recorded  by  Puysegur  and  others.  We  miss,  indeed,  the 
fine  cosmic  flavour  which  distinguished  the  writings  of 
Mesmer  himself  and  some  of  his  earliest  disciples.  For 
Deleuze  Animal  Magnetism  is  no  longer  "  un  rapproche- 
ment de  deux  sciences  connues,  I'astronomie  et  la  mede- 
cine."  He  cannot  see  what  the  planets  have  to  say  in  the 
matter.  But  he  is  convinced  of  the  existence  of  the 
magnetic  fluid.  His  somnambules  had  seen  it  raying  from 
his  fingers ;  many  had  smelt  it  and  found  the  odour 
agreeable,  and  had  tasted  it  in  magnetised    water  or  milk. 

Moreover,  Deleuze  had  satisfied  himself,  by  direct 
experiment,  of  the  existence  and  physical  properties  of  the 
fluid.  It  is  not,  he  points  out,  apparently  identical  with 
the  electric  fluid,  though  both  are  probably  modifications 
of  a  universal  medium.  It  has  many  analogies  with  nerve- 
force.  It  forms  an  atmosphere  round  each  of  us,  which 
does  not  make  its  presence  continually  felt,  only  because 
it  is  necessary,  for  any  sensible  effect  to  be  produced,  that 
it  should  be  concentrated  and  directed  by  the  will. 
How  it  is  that  the  will  directs  the  fluid  we  know  as  little 
as  how  our  will  moves  our  own  organism.  Oest  un  fait 
primitif:  we  cannot  go  behind  it. 

In  Deleuze,  as  already  in  Puysegur,  we  find  an  increasing 
recognition  of  the  human  element  in  the  process  of  "  Mag- 
netism." We  have  no  longer  to  deal  with  the  indifferent 
mechanical  fluid  which  Mesmer's  famous  propositions 
described.  The  fluid,  whatever  its  inorganic  analogies,  is 
pre-eminently  vital.  It  is  set  in  motion,  directed,  and 
controlled  by  the  will.  Deleuze  is  inclined  to  invert 
Puysegur's  maxim  and  say,  "  Veuillez  et  Croyez"  arguing 
on    the    lines    of   latter-day    Pragmatism   that   belief   will 


84     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

follow  on  will.  As  marking  the  radical  difference  between 
Deleuze's  attitude  and  that  of  the  modern  hypnotist,  it 
is  interesting  to  note  that  whilst  he  regards  both  will  and 
faith  as  necessary  to  the  operator,  he  does  not  regard  either 
as  essential  on  the  part  of  the  patient."  Obstinate  incredulity 
may  retard  and  obstruct,  but  cannot  ultimately  prevail 
against  a  fluid  which  is  real  enough  to  be  reflected  by  glass, 
and  to  make  its  presence  felt  even  through  opaque  substances. 
It  is  in  accordance  with  this  conception  of  Animal  Magnetism 
as  a  definite  physical  agent  that  Deleuze  attributes  painful 
effects  to  it  in  some  diseases.  Generally  speaking,  it  has 
a  tonic  action,  and  may  be  usefully  employed  when 
stimulating  agents  are  indicated.  But  when  the  system 
is  already  irritated  and  excited — as  by  poisons,  for  example — 
he  finds  that  the  effect  of  Magnetism  is  to  increase  the 
irritation  and  the  suffering,  and  frequently  to  bring  on 
convulsions.  Again,  in  many  diseases  where  it  can  be  use- 
fully employed  its  first  effect  is  generally  to  increase  the  pain 
and  accelerate  the  crisis. 

Again,  like  his  predecessors,  Deleu/.e  explains  the  subject's 
clairvoyance  and  her  obedience  to  the  silently  expressed 
will  of  her  Magnetiser,  as  physical  effects  of  the  fluid 
accumulated  in  the  nervous  system.  He  gives  an  interest- 
ing illustration  of  the  exaltation  of  memory  in  the  trance. 
He  had  put  into  the  somnambulic  state  one  of  his  friends, 
a  young  man  of  about  two-and-twenty.  The  patient  had 
some  time  previously  spent  two  years  in  Crete,  but  had 
forgotten  the  language  spoken  there.  At  Deleuze's 
instance  he  set  himself  in  the  trance  to  recall  the  books 
which  he  had  read  during  his  stay,  and  succeeded  in 
reciting  (apparently  in  French),  "precisely  as  if  he  were 
reading  it  off,"  about  two  pages  of  "  Narcissa,"  from  Young's 
Night  Thoughts.  Deleuze  adds :  "  Je  suis  bien  sur  qu' 
6tant  eveille  il  ne  savait  pas  les  Niiits  d' Young  par  cceur. 
Je  crois  meme  que  personne  ne  les  sait  en  prose  fran^aise, 
et  d'ailleurs  il  ne  faisait  de  la  litterature  qu'un  amuse- 
ment." 2 

»  Edition  of  1819,  vol  i.  p.  141.  •  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  236. 


THE   DISCOVERY   OF  SOMNAMBULISM      85 

In  another  case  his  patient  suffered  from  a  form  of 
aphasia.  She  was  hemlplegic  on  the  right  side  ;  she  had 
lost  the  power  of  reading  ;  could  not  count  beyond  three ; 
and  in  her  speech  could  use  no  pronouns,  and  was  unable 
to  conjugate  her  verbs.  Thus  she  said  "  soukaiter  b  on  jour'" 
instead  of  ^j'e  vous  souhaite."  After  treating  her  for  a  few 
weeks  Deleuze  restored  the  power  of  counting,  and  of 
reading,  by  spelling  the  words.  In  her  speech,  though 
she  still  employed  the  infinitive,  she  had  resumed  the  use 
of  pronouns.  At  this  stage  the  cure  was  unhappily  inter- 
rupted by  the  Revolution,  and  Deleuze  lost  sight  of  the 
patient.^ 

With  Deleuze  the  first  epoch  of  Animal  Magnetism 
may  be  said  to  end.  For  both  the  authors  whose  writings 
have  just  been  considered,  though  their  views  were  not 
published  until  much  later,  belong  to  the  pre-revolutionary 
period.  Deleuze  owed  his  interest  in  the  subject  to  the 
experiments  at  Busancy,  and  made  his  first  observations 
in  1785.  Petetin's  book,  published  in  1808,  deals  with 
experiences  beginning  many  years  before.  He  was  treating 
one  of  his  cataleptic  patients  throughout  the  siege  of  Lyons 
in  1792  ;  we  hear  the  guns  of  the  besieging  force  echoing 
through  his  pages  ;  he  was  himself  called  away  from  his 
professional  duties  to  take  his  place  under  fire  ;  and  the 
recovery  of  his  patient  was  seriously  retarded  by  the 
sanguinary  reprisals  exacted  by  the  army  of  the  National 
Convention.  But  the  Revolution  had  almost  stopped  the 
progress  of  Animal  Magnetism  altogether.  The  Societies 
of  Harmony  had  dissolved.  Most  of  the  members  were 
amongst  the  emigres ;  and  the  study  itself  was  for  a 
time  discredited  in  the  eyes  of  all  good  Republicans  from 
its  association  with  the  old  regime.  It  earned  further 
discredit  from  the  fact  that  many  of  Mesmer's  early 
disciples  were  among  those  who  afterwards  became  the 
followers  and  disciples  of  Cagliostro.  Up  to  the  end  of 
1788  there  had  been  a  steady  flow  of  books  and  pamphlets 
on  the  subject.  But  the  next  twenty  years,  according  to 
*  Edition  of  1819,  vol  i.  pp.  238-239. 


86     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Bureau's  BibHoj;raphy  of  the  books  published  in  France, 
furnished  barely  as  many  items,  all  told.  It  is  not  until 
the  Restoration,  in  fact,  that  we  find  Animal  Magnetism 
fully  restored  to  favour.  The  Magnetists  and  the  Jesuits,  as 
one  writer  puts  it,  returned  in  company  with  the  returning 
cmv^res :  "  La  France  fcodale,  qui  ne  vivait  que  de  souvenirs, 
aurait  volontiers  redemande  au  nouveau  Paris  et  les 
jjaquets  de   Mcsmer,  et  les   marquises  en  convulsions."  ' 

In  fact,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter,  the  Baquet  and 
the  crisis  had  gone  for  ever,  but  new  marvels  were  found  to 
take  their  place. 

•  Hist,  acad.,  p.  256. 


W 


CHAPTER  V 
HEALING  BY  SUGGESTION 

Progress  of  Animal  Magnetism  after  the  Restoration  in  France — 
Demonstrations  of  anaesthesia  and  clairvoyance — Views  of  Bertrand  : 
he  attributes  many  of  the  phenomena  to  suggestion — His  description 
of  the  trance  and  its  characteristics — His  explanation  of  "  prediction  " 
— He  is  disposed  to  believe  in  clairvoyance  and  thought-transference. 

THE  appearance  in  1813  of  Deleuze's  Histoire 
critique  marks,  as  has  been  said,  the  close  of  an 
epoch.  From  that  date  onwards  we  are  watching 
the  incubation  of  a  new  science.  For,  indeed,  not  only 
Paris,  but  the  whole  country  was  now  busied  with  the 
marvels  of  the  magnetic  trance.  A  bi-monthly  journal,  the 
Annales  du  Magnetisme  animal,  had  been  started  in  18 14, 
which  after  a  short  interruption  reappeared  as  the  Bibliothcqrie 
du  Magnetisme  animal.  This  came  to  an  end  in  18 19, 
and  was  replaced  by  the  Archives  du  Magnetisme  animal, 
under  the  editorship  of  Baron  d'Henin  de  Cuvillers.  There 
were,  moreover,  professional  clairvoyants  as  we  learn  from 
frequent  references  in  writings  of  this  period,  who  seem  to 
have  found  in  the  practice  of  clairvoyant  diagnosis  and 
treatment  of  disease  a  lucrative  occupation.  The  Abbe 
Faria  claimed  that  he  had  entranced  more  than  five  thou- 
sand persons.  Nor  was  the  interest  in  the  subject  confined 
to  France.  The  Academy  of  Berlin  in  1821  proposed  a 
prize  for  the  best  essay  on  the  subject — a  prize  for  which 
Bertrand  would  have  contended,  but  unluckily  his  essay 
arrived    too  late.^     In  Russia  a  Commission    appointed    by 

'  Du  Magneiisnte  animal,  p.  248. 
87 


88     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

the  Emperor  in  1815  had  reported  in  its  favour.  In 
Prussia  and  Denmark  the  efficacy  of  Magnetism  had  been 
recognised,  and  its  exercise  confined  by  law  to  members 
of  the  medical  profession.  In  fact,  throughout  Northern 
Europe,  but  especially  in  Germany,  the  new  treatment  seems 
to  have  been  widely  practised.  It  was  only  the  land  of  the 
immortal  Newton  "qui  dans  la  culture  des  sciences,  suivant 
la  marche  severe  de  I'expcrience  et  de  I'observation,  a 
dcdaignd  jusqu'a  present  de  s'occuper  de  magnetisme."  » 

It  was  not  long  before  the  new  treatment  penetrated 
even  into  the  Paris  hospitals.  In  18 19  a  young  physician, 
Alexander  Bertrand,  who  had  been  initiated  by  Deleuze, 
gave  a  course  of  lectures  on  Animal  Magnetism.  They 
were  so  successful  and  so  largely  attended  that  he  gave 
another  course  in  the  following  year.  In  the  same  year — 
1820 — M.  Ilusson,  chief  of  the  staff  of  the  Hotel  Dieu, 
invited  an  amateur,  Baron  Dupotet  de  Sennevoy,  twenty- 
five  years  later  editor  of  the  Journal  du  MagiitHisuie,  to 
treat  one  of  the  patients  in  the  hospital.  Mdlle.  Samson,  age 
seventeen,  belonged  to  that  hysterical  type,  heirs,  in  Janet's 
phrase,  of  la  iniscrc psychologique,  which  seems  almost  peculiar 
to  the  Paris  hospitals.  At  the  third  attempt  she  yielded  to 
the  Magnetic  treatment  and  fell  into  a  refreshing  sleep,  from 
which  she  could  not  be  roused.  In  the  somnambulic  state 
she  gave  some  account  of  her  malady.  She  could  see  her 
stomach  filled  with  small  pimples  {boutons\  some  red,  some 
white  ;  at  the  side  of  her  heart  there  was  a  receptacle  {poche) 
full  of  blood,  and  a  fine  thread  which  made  her  heart  beat. 
The  pimples  she  pronounced  incurable  ;  but  she  prescribed  for 
the  malady  of  the  heart,  and  rapidly  improved  in  health. = 

M.  Husson,  desiring  to  obtain  proof  of  the  reality  of  the 
magnetic  influence  apart  from  the  imagination  of  the  patient, 
arranged   for  Dupotet  to  be  concealed  in  a  cupboard  and  to 

'  Foissac,  Rapports  et  Discussions  (Paris,  1833),  p.  41. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  275  ;  Hist,  acadcmique,  p.  259.  Tlic  pouch  full  of  blood 
and  the  small  thread  which  made  the  heart  heat  seem  like  imperfect 
reminiscences  of  a  first  lesson  in  anatomy.  But  Mdlle.  Samson  seems 
to  have  looked  upon  these  structures  as  part  of  the  disease. 


HEALING   BY   SUGGESTION  89 

magnetise  her  from  thence  unseen,  at  a  given  signal.  The 
experiment  succeeded  on  three  or  four  consecutive  occasions. 
But  Bertrand,  who  was  present,  suggested  that,  as  all  the 
trials  had  taken  place  at  the  hour  when  the  patient  had  been 
accustomed  to  be  magnetised,  the  results  might  be  due  to 
expectation.  A  control  experiment  was  therefore  instituted. 
Dupotet  was  asked  to  absent  himself;  but  the  same  company 
assembled,  the  same  procedure  was  followed,  and  a  mock 
signal  was  given.     The  patient  did  not  fall  asleep. 

As  a  further  control  experiment  Dupotet  was  introduced 
into  the  ward  at  seven  o'clock  one  evening,  and  sent  Mdlle. 
Samson  to  sleep  from  a  distance,  at  a  given  signal.  Despite 
the  precautions  taken,  however,  to  conceal  Dupotet's  presence, 
Bertrand  was  not  satisfied.  M.  Husson,  the  chief  of  the  staff, 
contrary  to  his  usual  routine,  had  come  into  the  ward  just 
before  the  experiment,  and  in  passing  the  patient's  bed  had 
asked  whether  she  was  asleep  yet.  The  circumstance  might 
have  aroused  her  suspicions,  and  it  seemed  possible  that  a 
shadow  cast  by  the  lamp  might  have  betrayed  Dupotet's 
person,  behind  a  curtain,  a  few  feet  off.  To  Bertrand,  there- 
fore, the  experiment  seemed  inconclusive.  But  M.  Husson 
and  the  other  medical  witnesses  held  his  objection  to  be 
over-scrupulous. 

It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  at  a  time  when  anaesthetic 
drugs  were  wholly  unknown  the  induction  of  anaesthesia  in 
the  trance  appears  not  to  have  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
early  Magnetists.  They  do,  indeed — e.g.,  in  the  Reports  of  1784 
and  the  discussions  which  followed — take  note  of  the  numbness 
in  the  limbs  which  occasionally  accompanied  the  trance,  but 
this  was  commonly  attributed  to  the  constrained  attitude  or, 
as  by  Deleuze,  to  the  fact  that  the  lower  limbs  were  generally 
not  included  in  the  passes,  and  thus  escaped  the  vitalising 
influence  of  the  fluid  {Histoire  critique,  vol.  i.  p.  149).  This 
singular  omission  is,  of  course,  but  another  illustration — if 
another  is  needed — of  the  fact  that  in  this  region  the  observer 
finds  what  he  looks  for.  But  at  this  date  the  phenomenon 
seems  to  have  been  on  its  way  to  recognition.  In  the  year 
following  the  experiments  at  the  Hotel  Dieu  a  demonstration 


>^     ©FTHE 


90     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

of  anaesthesia  was  given  on  two  patients  in  the  wards  of 
St.  Madeleine  and  St.  Agnes,  under  the  direction  of  the  chief, 
M.  Recamier.  A  moxa  was  used  in  each  case,  composed  of 
a  cubical  piece  of  agaric  measuring  rather  less  than  an  inch 
{dix  ligncs  en  tons  sens).  The  scars  produced  involved  the 
whole  thickness  of  the  skin,  but  the  patients  gave  no  signs  of 
feeling.  In  another  case  a  flask  of  ammonia  was  held  to  the 
patient's  nostrils  for  fifteen  minutes  without  any  effect  being 
[)roduced.  Further  experiments  were  made  on  another  sub- 
ject, Mdlle.  Pc^tronille,  at  the  Salpctriere.  Amongst  the 
phenomena  supposed  to  have  been  demonstrated  in  this 
case  were  clairvoyance  of  the  patient's  own  diseased  organs, 
the  power  of  predicting  her  own  crises,  of  prescribing  for  her 
own  ailments,  and  so  on.  The  witnesses  in  this  case  included 
a  brilliant  young  physician,  Georget,  author  of  a  book  on  the 
Physiology  of  the  Nervous  System.  In  a  second  edition  of 
that  book  he  devotes  a  chapter  to  his  experiences  in 
Magnetism.  His  early  death  prevented  his  pursuing  the 
study  ;  but  he  left  behind  him  a  remarkable  testimony  to  the 
effect  produced  on  him  b>'  what  he  had  seen.  In  a  paper, 
which  came  to  light  only  after  his  death,  he  declared  that 
when  he  published  the  first  edition  of  his  book  he  was  a 
materialist,  but  the  remarkable  manifestations  of  somnam- 
bulism "ne  me  permirent  plus  de  douter  de  I'existence  en 
nous  et  hors  de  nous  d'un  principe  intelligent,  tout  a  fait 
different  dcs  existences  matcrielles."'  Another  physician  who 
attested  the  marvels  of  Animal  Magnetism,  and  especially 
clairvoyance  {e.g.,  of  a  watch  held  behind  the  head),  was  Pro- 
fessor Rostan,  author  of  the  article  on  the  subject  in  the 
Dictionary  of  Medicine. 

But  with  one  exception  the  medical  witnesses  of  this  time 
count  for  little  in  the  history  of  the  science.  They  had  been 
attracted  by  the  superficial  marvels  of  the  trance  ;  they 
lacked  the  ability,  or  perhaps  the  opportunity,  to  pursue 
their  investigations  below  the  surface.  From  an  uninstructed 
contempt  for  Animal  Magnetism  as  a  relic  of  medic-eval 
superstition  they  had  swung  round  to  an  equally  uncritical 
'  Foissac,  Rapports  d  Discussions  (1833),  p.  290. 


HEALING   BY   SUGGESTION  91 

acceptance,  marvels  and  all.  All  were  ready  to  believe  in 
physical  action  at  a  distance ;  Rostan  even  put  forward  a 
theory  of  a  subtle  nerve  atmosphere,  "  having  a  great  analogy 
with  electricity,"  which  is  simply  Animal  Magnetism  under  a 
new  name.  Some,  like  Georget,  went  so  far  as  to  find  in  the 
marvels  of  clairvoyance  proof  of  a  spiritual  universe, 
-"d*  But  Alexander  Bertrand  had  patiently  pursued  his  in- 
vestigations, correcting  year  by  year  his  first  crude  impres- 
sions in  the  light  of  later  experience,  and  in  his  books  we 
pass  at  a  step  from  the  mediaeval  to  the  modern  world.  For 
Bertrand  Animal  Magnetism  was  a  chimera.  The  various 
phenomena  observed  by  his  predecessors — the  magnetic 
crisis  ;  the  sensations  of  heat  and  cold  ;  the  influence  of  the 
Baquet  and  the  iron  rod  ;  the  tree  at  Busancy  ;  the  stream  of 
light  seen  by  Tardy's  somnambules  ;  the  conduction  by  iron, 
the  reflection  from  mirrors,  the  dissipation  by  copper  ;  the 
effects  of  wax,  silk,  wet  cards,  &c.,  as  observed  by  Petetin — 
the  whole  machinery  on  which  the  earlier  writers  relied  as 
demonstrating  the  existence  of  a  fluid — celestial,  magnetic, 
or  electric — he  sweeps  away  in  a  word  by  showing  that  the 
results  were  due  to  the  imagination  of  the  subject,  preter- 
normally  alive  to  the  least  suggestion,  by  word,  look,  gesture, 
or  even  unexpressed  thought,  from  the  operator.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  follow  Bertrand  in  detail  through  the  steps  of 
his  argument.  His  theory  of  suggestion  is  the  modern 
theory,  and  by  it,  as  we  know,  are  explained  most  of  the 
phenomena  which  to  the  earlier  observers  appeared  most 
inexplicable.  Indeed,  it  is  surprising  how  modern  Bertrand's 
book  is.  It  might  have  issued  within  the  last  decade  from 
the  Hopital  Civil  at  Nancy.  It  would  need  but  a  slight 
change  in  names,  dates,  and  other  unessential  particulars  to 
make  it  fit  the  times.  For  the  three  stages  of  the  magnetic 
crisis,  as  observed  in  the  Paris  of  120  years  ago — perturba- 
tion, "  coction,"  and  evacuation —  ^  we  should  substitute  the 
three  classic  stages  of  la  gratide  hysterie,  as  observed  in  the 
Paris  of  yesterday  ;  and  for  the  names  of  Petetin  and  Deleuze 
those,  say,  of  Charcot  and  Gilles  de  la  Tourette.  The  transfer 
*  See  Puysegur,  Du  Magnctisme  animal,  p.  140. 


92      MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

of  diseases,  the  influence  of  maj^nets  and  metals,  the  presence 
of  a  nerve  atmosphere,  have  all  been  demonstrated  as  con- 
clusively within  recent  years  at  the  Salpetriere  or  the  Charitc 
as  they  were  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  at  Busancy  or 
Lyons  ;  whilst  the  most  brilliant  results  of  Tardy  de  Mon- 
travel  have  been  outshone  in  modern  Paris  by  Dr.  Luys, 
Colonel  de  Rochas,  M.  Baraduc,  and  M.  Emile  Boirac.  For 
modern  scientific  appliances  have  enabled  these  later  observers 
to  claim  that  they  can  photograph  the  fluid  which  the  earlier 
writers  could  only  take  on  trust  from  their  somnambules. 
And,  to  complete  the  parallel,  the  scientific  world,  and  the 
mass  of  medical  men  in  this  country,  at  any  rate,  were  until 
recently  no  more  concerned  about  the  whole  business  than 
they  had  been  sixty  or  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago.  As 
has  been  said  of  another  subject : — 

"Hie  liber  est  in  quo  qu.-crit  sua  dogmata  quisquc 
Invcnit  ct  paiitcr  dogmata  quisquc  sua." 

Bertrand,  it  will  be  seen,  anticipated  Braid  by  one  and 
Bornheim  by  two  generations.'  For  him  the  magnetic  trance 
is  not  the  result  of  a  mysterious  force  acting  from  the  outside, 
but  a  particular  psychological,  or,  if  you  will,  pathological, 
condition  induced  by  various  exciting  causes  within  the 
organism.  lie  begins  by  relating  the  artificial  trance  with 
spontaneous  noctambulism,  the  somnambulic  states  associated 
with  certain  diseases,  and  the  states  of  ecstasy  epidemic  from 
time  to  time  in  religious  communities.  He  then  proceeds  to 
analyse  the  phenomena  presented,  and  enumerates  twelve 
principal  characteristics  of  the  state  of  induced  somnambulism, 

'  The  Abbe  Faria  had  for  some  years  before  this  date  given  public 
seances,  apparently  much  like  the  demonstrations  of  popular  lecturers 
on  Mesmerism  at  the  present  day,  at  which  he  had  made  his  subjects 
drink  water  for  lemonade,  see  phantoms  of  absent  friends,  &c.  In 
1819  he  had  publislicd  a  book,  De  la  Cause  du  Sommeil  luctde,  in  which 
he  maintained  that  the  phenomena  of  the  trance  were  to  be  attributed 
neither  to  a  fluid  nor  to  the  will  of  the  operator,  but  to  self-suggestion 
on  the  part  of  the  patient.  But  Faria  had  no  medical  training,  and  he 
seems  to  have  had  even  less  influence  on  educated  opinion  than 
Bertrand. 


HEALING   BY   SUGGESTION  93 

for  all  of  which  he  finds  more  or  less  exact  parallels  amongst 
the  records  of  delirium  and  the  outbreaks  of  spontaneous 
ecstasy  described  in  certain  religious  epidemics,  such  as  the 
Tremblers  of  the  Cevennes,  the  Nuns  of  Loudun,  and  the 
Convulsionaries  at  the  tomb  of  the  Archdeacon  Paris. 
These  characteristics  are  : — 

1.  Division  of  memory  between  trance  and  normal  life. 

2.  Appreciation  of  time. 

3.  Anaesthesia. 

4.  Exaltation  of  imagination, 

5.  And  of  the  intellectual  faculties. 

6.  Instinct  for  remedies. 

7.  Prevision. 

8.  Moral  inertia. 

9.  Communication  of  the  symptoms  of  maladies. 

10.  Thought-transference. 

11.  Seeing  without  eyes. 

12.  A  peculiar  influence  exercised  by  the  somnambulist  on 

his  own  organism. 

Of  the  first  five  items  on  the  list  little  need  be  said,  since 
they  are  sufficiently  recognised  by  modern  students.  The 
existence  of  the  state  of  artificial  somnambulism,  with  the 
subsequent  oblivion  dividing  it  from  the  waking  life  and  the 
other  characteristics  above  enumerated,  though  persistently 
denied  or  ignored  for  several  generations,  is  too  well  estab- 
lished at  the  present  time  for  its  reality  to  be  called  into 
question. 

Just  as  Bertrand  has  explained  the  curious  physical 
phenomena  recorded  by  his  predecessors  as  due  simply  to 
the  exaltation  of  the  imagination  in  the  trance,  so  he 
attributes  to  exaltation  of  memory  and  of  the  intelligence 
generally  in  the  state  of  ecstasy  some  of  the  marvels  recorded 
by  religious  chroniclers,  especially  the  speaking  and  under- 
standing of  foreign  tongues  by  demoniacs.  By  moral 
inertia  (10)  Bertrand  aims  at  describing  the  passivity  and 
want  of  initiative  generally  characteristic  of  the  induced 
trance.     Under  the  heading  (12)  the  special  influence  of  the 


94     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

somnambule  on  her  own  organism  are  included,  as  will  be 
shown  later,  the  phenomena  of  pseudo-prevision,  as  described 
in  the  last  chapter,  and,  generally  speaking,  the  control  over 
involuntary  organic  processes. 

But  the  remaining  five  items  are  not  yet  admitted  by 
modern  science,  and  for  the  most  part  probably  never  will  be. 
It  will  be  observed  that  Bertrand  does  not  include  amongst 
the  powers  claimed  for  somnambulists  that  clairvoyance  of  the 
interior  which  was  so  fully  illustrated  by  Puysegur's  patients, 
and  in  which  even  Georget  seems  to  have  been  disposed  to 
believe.  The  marvels  described  in  the  last  chapter  were  seen, 
so  to  speak,  through  the  eyes  of  the  contemporary  observers. 
It  will  be  convenient  now  to  consider  them  in  the  light 
thrown  upon  them  by  Bertrand  himself,  and  by  more  modern 
investigators.  On  the  state  of  somnambulism  itself  the 
observations  of  Puysegur  and  his  contemporaries  may,  as 
said,  be  taken  as  substantially  accurate.  It  is  after  this  point 
that  our  difficulties  begin.  As  regards  the  alleged  seeing  of 
the  interior  organism,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  descriptions 
given  of  the  diseases  and  of  the  nature  of  the  cure  are  in  most 
cases  ridiculous  and  show  complete  ignorance  of  anatomy. 
Most  of  Puysegur's  patients  traced  the  cause  of  their  disease 
to  an  internal  abscess  [depot) ;  and  this  abscess,  whatever 
its  situation,  was  to  discharge  itself  by  the  intestinal  canal,  the 
nose,  the  mouth,  or  ear,  and  the  patient  would  be  immediately 
cured.  The  abscess  which  caused  young  Joly's  deafness 
discharged  by  the  nose ;  we  hear  of  another  patient  who 
suffered  from  an  abscess  in  the  hand,  which  discharged  itself 
through  the  ear,  by  means  of  a  canal  which  he  discerned  to 
connect  the  little  finger  with  the  head  I  ^  A  man  whose 
work  consisted  in  sifting  wheat  saw  a  mass  of  dust  caked 
together  in  his  stomach  as  the  cause  of  his  woes.^  Yet 
another,  after  his  abscess  had  discharged,  saw  its  outer 
covering  {poche)  in  the  form  of  a  fine  membrane,  firmly 
attached  to  the  nerves,  and  his  cure  was  not  completed  until 
the  membrane  had  disengaged  itself.  3 

'  Bertrand,  Traite  du  Somnambiilismc,  p.  69. 

«  Puysegur,  Memoires,  vol.  ii.  p.  70.         3  jd.,  vol.  i.  p.  125. 


HEALING  BY   SUGGESTION  95 

There  is  no  need  to  accuse  these  clairvoyants  of  bad 
faith ;  we  see,  no  doubt,  in  their  preposterous  anatomy 
the  spontaneous  expression  of  the  confused  ideas  current 
amongst  the  uneducated  at  this  date.  But  if  the  diagnosis  of 
the  disease  was  not  due  to  clairvoyance,  we  certainly  need 
not  ascribe  the  prediction  of  the  results  to  a  pressensation 
particuliere.  When  Puys^gur's  patients  foretold  much 
suffering  for  themselves  and  the  occurrence  of  several  severe 
crises  as  the  preliminary  to  a  cure,  we  can  see  that  in  theae 
predictions  they  were  again  reflecting  their  environment. 
The  orthodox  medical  practice  of  the  time  encouraged  the 
use  of  violent  remedies — its  chief  and  almost  its  only  weapons 
were  purges,  emetics,  and  bleeding.  Mesmer  had  taught  his 
pupils  to  seek  salvation  through  violent  convulsions  and  the 
intensification  of  the  painful  symptoms  of  the  malady. 
Puys^gur  in  one  place  expresses  a  doubt  whether  a  patient 
had  been  really  healed  "  because  he  had  not  yet  experienced 
the  painful  crises  which,  I  imagine,  are  essential  to  the  cure 
of  so  grave  a  malady."  ^ 

There  are  several  peculiarities,  as  Bertrand  points  out,  in 
these  "  predictions."  In  the  first  place,  the  convulsions  and 
other  crises  generally  occurred  punctually  on  the  stroke  of  the 
clock,  and  lasted  as  a  rule  for  a  measured  time — half  an  hour, 
an  hour,  two  hours,  &c.  Again,  the  predictions  were 
singularly  eclectic  in  their  subject-matter.  They  were  con- 
cerned with  such  incidents  as  sleep,  convulsions,  dumbness, 
catalepsy,  spitting  of  blood,  bleeding  from  the  nose,  and  so  on. 
But  they  never  foretold  the  occurrence  of  serious  organic 
disease.  Bertrand  mentions  a  case  where  a  patient  afflicted 
with  paralysis  of  the  left  leg  announced,  amongst  other 
predictions,  that  some  months  hence  she  would  be  affected 
with  paralysis  of  the  tongue  and  be  unable  to  speak  for  a 
week.  The  prediction  was  punctually  fulfilled.  But  long 
before  the  time  fell  due  the  patient  was  found  to  be  in  an 
advanced  stage  of  pulmonary  phthisis,  the  presence  of  which 
not  only  the  attendant  physician  but  her  own  clairvoyance 
had  failed  to  detect.  That  is  a  curiously  limited  clairvoyance 
•  Puysegur,  Memoires,  vol.  i.  p.  65. 


96     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

which  enabled  the  sick  woman  to  foresee  months  beforehand 
the  occurrence  of  a  transient  functional  disability,  but  could 
not  enable  her  to  detect  the  fatal  disease  which  had  already 
seriously  affected  her  organism. 

It  is  not,  in  fact,  to  precognition  but  to  predetermination 
that  the  results  are  to  be  ascribed.  The  patient  himself  set 
his  organism  to  explode  in  the  predicted  fit  of  convulsions,  to 
bleed  from  the  nose,  or,  as  in  the  last  cited  case,  to  lapse  into 
hysterical  dumbness,  and  it  was  himself  who  attended  to  the 
fulfilment  of  the  prediction.  And  here  another  question  arises. 
So  far  as  most  of  the  effects  are  concerned  there  is  no  reason 
to  question  the  good  faith  of  the  subject.  The  convulsions, 
the  dumbness,  the  temporary  paralysis  of  the  limbs  were  no 
doubt  all  the  effect  of  unconscious  self-suggestion.  Similar 
effects  have  been  produced  again  and  again  in  the  history  of 
h)'pnotism,  where  there  were  no  reasons  to  suspect  the  good 
faith  of  the  subject.  But  Puysdgur  was  a  grand  seigneur  ; 
he  was  rich  and  his  favour  was  no  doubt  worth  conciliating ; 
he  was  a  brave  soldier,  ready  to  be  carried  away  by 
enthusiasm,  a  man  of  transparent  honesty  himself,  and  slow 
to  suspect  others  of  bad  faith.  Above  all,  he  was  no 
physician. 

Some  of  the  things  related  by  him  are  very  difficult  to 
accept.  Curiously  enough,  the  instance  which,  as  he  tells  the 
story,  caused  most  suspicion  at  the  time  is  one  in  which  it  is 
not  difficult  to  credit  the  good  faith  of  the  patient,  and  that 
precisely  because  of  the  circumstance  which  at  the  time 
seemed  most  suggestive  of  trickery.  Victor,  Puysegur's  first 
somnambule,  some  months  later  happened  to  sustain  a  serious 
fall,  which  left  him  with  pains  in  the  head.  He  experienced 
some  relief  from  bleeding,  but  announced  in  the  clairvoyant 
state  that  there  was  some  blood  still  remaining  in  the  head 
("  qu'il  lui  rcstait  encore  dii  sang  dayis  la  tite  "),  and  that  his  cure 
would  be  completed  by  bleeding  from  the  left  nostril,  which 
would  occur  spontaneously  at  a  given  hour  a  day  or  two 
later.  Puysegur  thought  to  convince  some  of  his  incredulous 
friends  by  inviting  them  to  witness  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prediction.     At  the  appointed  time  the  bleeding  from  the  left 


HEALING   BY   SUGGESTION  97 

nostril  duly  took  place ;  but  the  spectators  remained  uncon- 
vinced, because  the  blood  was  pure,  and  not  mixed  with 
matter,  as  would  have  been  the  case  if  discharged  from  an 
abscess.  On  the  assumption  that  the  effect  was  due  to 
self-suggestion,  pure  blood  is  precisely  what  we  should  have 
anticipated. 

But  of  all  the  facts  recorded  by  Puysegur  and  other  con- 
temporary observers  the  most  open  to  suspicion  is  the 
alleged  discharge  of  diseased  matter  by  improbable  routes, 
from  hypothetical  abscesses.  The  analogy  which  leaps  to  the 
mind  is  that  of  witchcraft.  The  hysterical  or  merely  mis- 
chievous children,  who  were  the  chief  denouncers  of  witches 
in  this  country,  frequently  enhanced  the  effect  of  their  fits 
and  convulsions  by  fraudulent  means.  They  would  vomit 
strange  substances  previously  secreted  in  the  mouth  for  the 
purpose ;  they  were  detected  colouring  their  urine  with  ink, 
employing  soap  to  simulate  frothy  saliva  in  pretended 
epileptic  attacks,  and  so  on.  It  is  true  that  in  the  case  of 
young  Joly,  recorded  in  the  last  chapter,  we  have  credible 
and  abundant  testimony  to  the  reality  of  his  cure  ;  and  we 
have  no  reason  to  suspect  the  genuineness  of  his  somnam- 
bulism. But  all  that  does  not  afford  a  sufficient  guarantee 
against  trickery,  and  the  circumstances,  as  shown,  would  have 
admitted  of  trickery  being  practised.  It  is  precisely  the 
difficulty  of  distinguishing  between  the  real,  the  imaginary, 
and  the  fraudulent  which  for  three  or  four  generations 
repelled  the  majority  of  thinking  men  from  the  investigation 
of  Mesmerism,  and  which  still  causes  many  medical  men  to 
hold  aloof  from  the  newly  christened  science  of  Hypnotism. 

Modern  observers,  however,  claim  to  have  produced  by 
suggestion  bleeding  from  the  nose  or  even  from  the  skin ; 
several  cases  are  known  in  which  the  secretion  of  milk  has 
been  restored  by  suggestion.  There  are  cases  recorded  by 
modern  French  hypnotists  in  which  blisters  and  suppuration 
have  been  so  caused.  Effects  of  this  kind,  indeed,  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  observed  outside  France,  and  Dr. 
Bramwell,  after  criticising  the  precautions  taken,  regards  the 
evidence    for    blistering    by    suggestion    as    by    no   means 

H 


98     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

conclusive.^  On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  patients  who  are  the  subjects  of  experiment  in 
French  hospitals  are  apparently  far  more  amenable  to 
suggestion  than  those  commonly  accessible  to  English  or 
German  physicians.  Further,  it  is  probable  that  the  effect  of 
spontaneous  self-suggestion  working,  as  in  the  case  of 
Puysegur's  patients,  through  several  days  or  even  weeks,  may 
have  been  more  powerful  to  affect  the  organism  than  any 
suggestion  made  for  experimental  purposes  by  the  hospital 
physician. 

Bertrand  cites  from  his  own  experience  a  case  which  gives 
rise  to  mixed  reflections.  One  of  his  patients  announced  to 
him  that  in  eight  days'  time  she  would  be  suffering  from  a 
swollen  face,  inflamed  {infiltrt'es)  eyelids,  and  scratches  on  the 
face  such  as  might  be  made  with  a  pin.  The  results  were  in 
accordance  with  the  "prediction."  The  scratches  here 
obviously  suggest  trickery  ;  but  it  is  more  difficult  to  see  how 
the  inflammation  of  the  eyelids  could  have  been  produced 
fraudulently.2 

Amongst  the  pseudo-phenomena,  then,  which  melted  away 
under  the  powerful  solvent  of  Bertrand's  analysis  we  may 
place  the  alleged  clairvoyance  of  the  interior  of  the  human 
body  and  the  power  to  foresee  the  course  of  adisease.3     But 

'  Hypnotism  (1903),  p.  84. 

*  Traiie  du  Somnambulisme,  p.  176 ;  Du  Magnelisme  animal  en 
France,  p.  420. 

3  In  Ills  earlier  work,  Traits  du  Somnambulisme,  publislied  in  1823, 
Bertrand  had  not  sufficient  experience  to  determine  the  true  sit^iiili- 
cance  of  tliese  "  predictions,"  and  he  su^csted  tentatively  that  they 
might  be  attributed  to  an  instinctive  perception  of  organic  processes, 
antecedently  not  more  incredible  than  the  instinct  which  guides  the 
bird  in  its  nesting  and  migration.  But  in  his  Du  Magnclisme  animal 
en  France,  published  in  1826,  he  expressly  repudiates  the  former 
explanation,  and  ascribes  all  the  phenomena  to  predetermination  {i.e., 
self-suggestion).  He  maintains  (i)  "  que  nous  ne  pouvons  positivement 
determiner  les  limites  dans  lesquelles  pent  s'etendre  cette  influence 
singuliere  {i.e.,  predetermination)  des  somnambules  sur  leur  organisation  ; 
(2)  qu'on  ne  pent  nier  que  dans  la  plupart  des  cas  les  predictions  ne 
soient  reellement  la  cause  de  I'effet  produit  "  {Du  Magnclisme  animal 
en  France,  p.  420).  After  this  plain  statement  it  is  surprising  to  find 
that  the  authors  of  the  Histoire  academique   (p.  271)  ridicule  Bertrand 


HEALING   BY   SUGGESTION  99 

the  four  remaining  faculties,  viz.,  instinct  for  remedies,  com- 
munication of  symptoms,  thought-transference,  and  clair- 
voyance, which  Bertrand  claims,  though  somewhat  doubtfully, 
for  somnambulism,  require  more  attention.  He  thinks  it 
probable,  though  his  own  experience  does  not  qualify  him  to 
pronounce  a  decided  opinion,  that  some  somnambules  can 
indicate  the  remedies  appropriate  to  their  maladies,  just  as  the 
lower  animals  can  seek  out  their  appropriate  food  ;  and  he 
would  explain  the  faculty  in  each  case  as  being  instinctive. 
Of  the  ability  of  the  somnambule  in  certain  cases  to  divine 
the  ailments  of  others,  without  visible  means  of  diagnosis,  he 
has  no  doubt;  and  he  gives  three  examples  from  his  own 
practice.  He  brought  to  a  somnambule  a  patient  of  his  own 
whom  she  had  never  seen.  The  chief  affection  in  this  case 
was  asthma.  The  somnambule,  after  being  placed  in  rapport 
with  the  invalid,  shortly  presented  all  the  symptoms  of  a 
severe  asthmatical  attack ;  she  then  proceeded  to  describe 
with  great  accuracy  various  minor  ailments  and  pains,  and 
finally  a  skin  affection  in  a  particular  part  of  the  body  of 
which  there  were  no  external  signs,  and  the  existence  of 
which  was  unknown  even  to  Bertrand  himself. 

He  made  two  similar  observations  on  another  somnam- 
bule.    The  second  I  give  in  his  own  words : — 

"  Voici  une  troisieme  observation,  faite  sur  la  meme  somnambule,  et 
qui  ne  paraitra  pas  moins  remarquable  que  les  precedentes.  Je  n'avais 
pas  prepare  cette  epreuve  :  le  hasard  me  la  fournit.  J'etais  aupres  de 
la  somnambule,  que  je  magnetisais  endormie  sur  son  lit,  quand  je  vis 
entrer  un  de  mes  amis  accompagne  d'un  jeune  homme  blesse  depuis 
peu  de  temps  en  duel,  et  qui  avail  regu  une  balle  dans  la  tete  ;  il  etait 
encore  malade  de  sa  blessure,  et  venait  pour  consulter.  On  me  le  dit  a 
voix  basse,  sans  parler  du  genre  de  la  blessure  ;  et  comme  la  somnam- 
bule parut  disposee  a  donner  la  consultation  qu'on  lui  demandait,  je  la 


for  believing  in  the  power  of  somnambules  to  "  predict"  crises,  and  cite 
the  very  page  from  which  the  above  quotation  is  taken  in  support  of 
their  contention.  It  is  not  only  magnetic  somnambules  who  force  upon 
us  the  perplexing  choice  between  the  fictions  of  the  imagination  and 
those  of  wilful  deception.  No  doubt  MM.  Burdin  and  Dubois  may  be 
acquitted  of  the  graver  charge,  but  imagination  of  this  kind  in  the 
authors  of  academic  history  is  in  itself  almost  criminal. 


too  Mesmerism  and  christian  science 

mis  en  rapport  avec  le  blessc,  et  me  bornai  a  lui  dcmandcr  dc  declarer 
cc  qu'il  avait.  (Je  n'ai  pas  besoin  dc  dire  avec  quel  soin  on  doit  cvilcr 
dc  faire  aux  somnambulcs  des  questions  qui  puisscnt  leur  indiquer  les 
responses  qu'ils  doivent  faire.)  Elie  parut  chcrcher  un  in.stant,  puis  elle 
dit  en  s'adressant  le  parole  a  ellemenie  :  "  Non,  non,  ce  nest  pas  pos- 
sible ;  si  un  homme  avait  eu  une  balle  dans  la  tele,  il  serait  mort." — "  Eh 
bien  !  "  lui  dis-je,  "  que  voyez-vous  done  ? " — "  II  faut  qu'il  se  trompe," 
me  dit-elle ;  "  il  me  dit  que  monsieur  a  une  balle  dans  la  tete."  '  Je 
I'assurai  que  ce  qu'elle  disait  etait  vrai,  et  lui  demandai  si  elle  pouvait 
voir  par  ou  la  balle  etait  entree,  et  quel  trajet  elle  avait  parcouru.  La 
somnambule  relicchit  encore  un  instant,  puis  ouvrit  la  bouche,  ct  in- 
diqua  avec  le  doigt  que  la  balle  etait  entree  par  la  bouche,  et  avait 
penetre  jusqu'a  la  partie  postericure  du  cou  ;  ce  qui  etait  encore  vrai. 
Kniin  elle  poussa  Tcxactitude  jusqu'a  indiquer  quclques-unes  des  denls 
qui  nianquaient  dans  la  bouche,  et  que  la  balle  avait  brisees. 

Cette  observation  ne  me  laissa  rien  desirer,  puisque  d'ailleurs  j'etais 
siir  que  la  somnambule  n'avait  eu  d'avancc  aucune  connaissance  de  la 
personne  qu'on  lui  avait  amenee,  et  qu'elle  n'avait  pas  ouvert  les  yeux 
depuis  I'instant  ou  le  blesse  etait  entre  dans  la  chambre.  Au  restf, 
quand  elle  I'aurait  vu,  la  balle  etant  entree  dans  la  bouche  sans  faire 
aucune  lesion  aux  tegumens  exterieurs,  il  lui  aurait  ete  impossible 
d'acquerir  dun  coup-d'ueil  toutes  les  connaissances  qu'elle  montra  sur 
la  nature  de  la  blessure.' 


If  the  somnambule's  diagnoses  in  these  three  cases  were 
not  due  to  subconscious  interpretations  of  external  indica- 
tions too  slight  to  attract  the  waking  attention,  her  success 
may  perhaps  be  attributed  to  telepathy.  But  the  cases 
described  by  the  earlier  writers  are  not  sufficiently  detailed 
or  sufficiently  numerous  to  justify  any  certain  conclusion. 

In  thought-transference  {communication  des  pensces)  Ber- 
trand  is  disposed  to  believe  because  of  the  abundant  testi- 
mony to  be  found  in  the  religious  chronicles  referred  to.  As 
an  illustration  of  the  general  belief  in  earlier  times  in  such  a 
faculty,  he  points  out  that  the  ability  to  read  the  thoughts  of 
those  around  was  regarded  by  the  Church  as  the  touchstone 
of  demoniac  possession.  Further,  though  he  had  himself 
witnessed  no  clear  instance  of  its  operation,  he  thinks  the 
testimony  of  his  contemporaries  too  strong  to  be  set  aside. 

'  "//  "=  not  the  patient,  but  the  inner  voice  which  seemed  to  the 
somnambule  to  speak  from  her  stomach. 
'  Traile,  &c.,  pp.  232-234. 


HEALING  BY  SUGGESTION  loi 

He  is  inclined  to  explain  by  thought-transference  the  "  mag- 
netic mobility  "  which  Puysegur  observed  in  Madeleine  and 
other  subjects,  and  the  action  at  distance  which  some  of  his 
contemporaries  claim  to  have  witnessed. 

Again,  he  finds  it  difficult  to  refuse  credence  to  a  faculty, 
of  vision  at  close  quarters  without  the  aid  ol"  tbeieyes.  Not; 
only  is  such  a  faculty  attested  by  Petetiii's  experiments,  biU; 
amongst  Bertrand's  contemporaries  there  were  several  persions' 
who  had  witnessed  instances  of  its  apparent  operation. ^  This 
question  of  clairvoyance  at  close  quarters  will  be  further  con- 
sidered in  the  next  chapter.  Recent  research  has  not  brought 
any  confirmation  of  the  belief  And  two  points  with  regard 
to  it  may  be  noted  here.  In  the  first  place,  none  of  those 
who  have  expressed  their  belief  in  the  possibility  of  vision 
by  the  pit  of  the  stomach  or  the  back  of  the  head  or  the 
toes  or  fingers  have  ever  attempted  to  explain  how  the 
alleged  transference  of  visual  sensibility  to  the  nerves  supply- 
ing those  parts  of  the  body  could  possibly  supply  the  place 
of  the  complicated  optical  instrument  which  in  normal  life 
furnishes  us  with  the  means  of  seeing.  Let  it  be  assumed 
that  under  certain  conditions  in  certain  somnambules  the 
skin  of  the  toes  or  the  back  of  the  head  may  become  as 
sensitive  to  light  as  the  surface  of  the  retina.  Would  that 
explain  how  the  somnambule  could  read  a  printed  book  with 
her  toes  or  the  back  of  her  head  ?  Even  the  retina — which 
has,  after  all,  had  a  lifelong  training  in  the  business — is 
assisted  in  its  task  by  adjustable  lenses  and  curtains  and 
what  not.  Where  in  these  cases  of  abnormal  vision  do  we 
find  the  necessary  apparatus  for  focussing  the  divergent  rays? 
If,  then,  the  observers  who  testify  to  this  power  of  clairvoy- 
ance had  boldly  claimed  it  as  a  possession  of  the  soul  itself, 
unhampered  by  any  clumsy  corporeal  apparatus,  their  position 
would  at  least  be  intelligible.  But  Petetin  claimed  this 
marvellous  power  for  a  mere  fluid,  a  mechanical  emanation; 

'  In  addition  to  Petetin  and  Deleuze,  Georget,  and  Rostan,  Bertrand 
cites  the  testimony  of  Despines,  a  physician  of  Aix,  another  doctor, 
Delpit,  and  the  case  of  Baron  Strombeck's  somnambule,  described  in 
Chapter  XI.  (Dm  Magnelisme  animal  en  France,  pp.  445-466). 


102    MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

and  even  Bertrand  does  not  seem  to  have  realised  the  almost 
insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  an  explanation  in  terms 
of  physics  or  physiolo<^y.  But  Bertrand  in  particular  appears 
to  have  been  misled  by  a  false  analogy.  At  the  commence- 
ment of  his  Txaitc  dii  Souinamhulisme  he  cites  from  the 
:. article  O'l  "Somnambulism  in  the  Encyclopcsdia  an  account 
.of  a  ypyng  ecclcsictstic  who  in  the  somnambulic  state  could 
■v/ft^  5Griii(.)q,s*  wUh.his  eyes  closed.  When  a  piece  of  card- 
hoard  was  interposed  between  his  eyes  and  the  paper,  so  as 
effectually  to  exclude  vision  by  normal  means,  it  was  observed 
that  he  still  continued  to  write  and,  as  before,  would  go  back 
over  the  writing  and  insert  corrccti<jns  and  additions  in  their 
proper  place.  Bertrand  ascribes  this  phenomenon  to  a  new 
kind  of  visio7i.  But  it  is  not  vision  at  all  ;  it  is  probably,  as 
recent  investigations  have  shown,  to  be  explained  by  a  special 
development  of  the  muscular  sense. 

To  conclude  this  brief  retrospect  of  the  phenomena  re- 
corded at  this  epoch  in  connection  with  the  induced  trance, 
we  may  note  that  in  the  literature  of  this  date  we  meet  with 
the  earliest  instances  of  the  post-hypnotic  fulfilment  of  in- 
junctions given  in  the  trance,  a  phase  of  the  subject  which 
has  attained  much  prominence  in  recent  times  from  its 
interest  both  for  psychology  and  therapeutics.  On  one 
(occasion  Bertrand  told  a  soainambule  to  remember  on 
waking  a  song  which  had  been  sung.  To  another  som- 
nambule  he  gave  the  command  that  she  should  willingl}- 
submit  to  cold  baths  which  had  been  prescribed  for  her,  and 
from  which  she  had  hitherto  shrunk.  Both  suggestions  were 
fulfilled.^  Again,  a  case  is  recorded  in  the  Annates  du 
Magnctisvie.'^  A  young  girl  was  told  in  the  trance  that 
she  should  go  at  a  certain  hour  to  a  particular  house  and 
ask  for  the  magnetiser.  When  the  appointed  time  came  tlie 
girl,  who  was  awake  and  in  her  normal  state,  felt  the  impulse 
to  go  to  the  house,  but  knowing  nothing  of  the  preceding 
circumstances,  thought  it  altogether  unreasonable.  She 
nevertheless  obeyed  it. 

'  Traiiidn  Somnninbulisme,  p.  285.  •  Vol.  vi.  p.  272. 


II 


CHAPTER  VI 

LATER  FRENCH  COMMISSIONS 

Discussion  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine  in  1825 — a  committee  of 
investigation  appointed — Their  subjects :  Celine.  Mdlle.  Samson,  Paul 
Villagrand — Their  Report  endorses  prevision  and  clairvoyance — 
Anaesthesia  in  trance — the  case  of  Madame  Plantin,  and  of  Oudet's 
patient :  reception  by  the  Academy  of  reports  on  these  two  cases — 
The  Academy  in  1837  appoints  another  Commission  to  investigate  the 
subject — Their  Report  unfavourable — Burdm's  prize  for  clairvoyance — 
Experiments  with  Mdlle.  Pigeaire,  Teste's  subject,  Mdlle.  Prudence, 
and  others — The  prize  not  awarded. 

THE  experiments  made  in  1820  and  1821  in  the  Hotel 
Dieu,  the  Salpetriere,  and  other  "pubHc  institutions 
had  alarmed  the  General  Council  of  the  Hospitals  ; 
and  a  decree  was  issued  forbidding  the  further  practice  of 
Animal  Magnetism  in  any  of  the  State  hospitals.  Of 
Bertrand  we  have  no  news  after  the  publication  of  his  second 
book  in  1826.  He  died  a  few  years  later.  There  seemed 
then  some  danger  that  the  whole  question  of  the  induced 
trance  and  the  attendant  phenomena  might  be  left  to  be 
investigated  by  uninstructed  laymen  and  exploited  by  pro- 
fessional quacks.  However,  in  1S25  a  young  doctor,  P. 
Foissac,  approached  the  Medical  Section  of  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Medicine  and  offered  to  provide  somnambules 
if  they  would  appoint  a  Commission  to  investigate  the  sub- 
ject. The  Section  proceeded  in  the  matter  with  due  circum- 
spection. They  appointed  a  committee  of  five  to  consider 
the  question  whether  it  was  suitable  for  the  Academy  to  con- 
cern itself  with  the  question  or  no.  On  December  13,  1825, 
this  Committee  reported  by  the  mouth  of  M.  Husson,  and 


I 


T04    MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

recommended  the  Section  to  undertake  the  inquiry.  The 
reading  of  the  preHminary  report  was  followed  by  a  heated 
discussion,  which  was  prolonged  over  the  next  three  sittings. 
There  is  no  need  to  analyse  the  debate  in  detail.  The  argu- 
ments of  the  opponents  are  by  now  sufficiently  familiar.  In 
the  course  of  the  fourscore  years  wliich  have  intervened  they 
have  been  reproduced,  mutatis  mutandis,  in  the  annals  of 
every  medical  society  in  the  civilised  world.  Some  of  the 
speakers  had  studied  the  subject  for  years,  and  were  con- 
vinced that  all  the  phenomena  reported,  "  or  at  least  nine- 
tcnths  of  them,"  were  due  to  illusion  and  jugglery.  It  was 
pointed  out  that  the  whole  subject  had  been  investigated  by 
the  Commissions  of  1784;  there  was  no  need  to  reopen  a 
chose  jugce.  Moreover,  it  was  clear  that  Mesmcr  was  a 
cjuack  and  Puysegur  a  man  without  scientific  training  ;  from 
Germany  and  the  Scandinavian  countries,  where  the  doctrine 
was  most  rife,  had  notoriously  proceeded  too  many  extrava- 
gant systems  and  erroneous  beliefs  alike  in  medicine  and 
philosophy.  Let  the  system  be  judged  by  its  results  ;  the 
German  physicians  could  not  show  a  higher  proportion  of 
cures  than  the  I'rench.  Even  if  there  were  anything  in  it — 
and  some  of  those  who  opposed  the  appointment  of  the 
Commission  (M.  Rccamier,  for  instance,  who  had,  in  1821, 
witnessed  the  painless  application  of  a  moxa  in  the  Salle 
Sainte  Madeleine)  were  willing  to  admit  so  much — it  would 
be  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  Academy  to  undertake  the 
inquiry-,  for  the  subject  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  quacks 
and  charlatans,  who  made  a  lucrative  living  out  of  their 
alleged  clairvoyance.  Nay,  the  very  appointment  of  an 
academic  Commission  would  be  taken  as  endorsing  the  pre- 
tensions of  these  pernicious  impostors,  and  would  unsettle 
the  minds  of  the  rising  generation,  delivering  them  over  to 
medictval  superstition.  Moreover,  it  was  a  very  difficult  sub- 
ject to  investigate,  since  so  many  of  the  phenomena  depended 
on  the  good  faith  of  the  subject  ;  and  if  all  that  was  said  of 
it  proved  true,  it  would  still  not  be  of  the  smallest  use  in 
medicine — let  the  physicists  or  somebody  else  take  it  up. 
Conversely,  another  argued    that  it  was  not  a   subject    for 


LATER   FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  105 

inquiry  either  by  physicists  or  physiologists,  since  the  alleged 
manifestations  transcended  all  the  laws  of  Nature,  and  an 
Academy  of  Medicine  was  not  competent  to  investigate  the 
properties  of  the  soul.  Last,  and  most  singular  argument  of 
all,  there  were  such  grave  moral  dangers  arising  from  the 
abuse  of  the  magnetic  influence  that  it  would  be  most  unde- 
sirable for  any  responsible  body  of  trained  investigators  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  such  a  disagreeable  business. 

The  supporters  of  the  motion  had,  as  may  be  imagined, 
the  best  of  the  argument ;  they  had  also  the  majority  of  the 
votes  ;  the  recommendation  was  finally  carried  by  thirty-five 
to  twenty-five,  and  a  Commission  was  appointed  on  February 
28,  1826. 

The  Commission  as  finally  constituted  consisted  of  MM. 
Leroux,  Bourdois  de  la  Mothe,  Double,  Magendie,  Guersent, 
Thilleye,  Marc,  Itard,  Fouquier,  Gueneau  de  Mussy,  and 
Husson.  MM.  Magendie  and  Double,  however,  at  an  early 
period  withdrew  from  the  Commission  ;  the  final  Report  was 
signed  by  all  the  nine  remaining  members. 

The  Commission  began  its  labours  by  experimenting  with 
Foissac's  somnambule  Celine,  but  at  that  period  obtained 
with  her  no  results  of  value.  They  then  turned  their  atten- 
tion to  the  hospitals  ;  but  after  a  few  observations  had  been 
made  on  patients  in  the  Hotel  Dieu  and  the  Charite  the 
Council  General  of  the  Hospitals  again  interposed  and  forbade 
them  to  continue.  The  Commissioners  were  thus  forced  to 
depend  upon  private  sources  ;  and  unfortunately  few  subjects 
appear  to  have  been  forthcoming.  The  inquiry  dragged  on 
for  about  five  years,  during  which  period  experiments  were 
made  upon  no  more  than  twelve  or  fourteen  persons  who 
gave  unmistakable  proofs  of  being  amenable  to  the  magnetic 
influence. 

No  doubt  the  Commissioners  were  seriously  hampered  by 
being  precluded  from  making  observations  in  the  hospitals. 
Further,  no  member  of  the  Commission  was  able  himself  to 
magnetise,  and  they  were  thus  unable  to  pursue  their  investi- 
gations in  their  private  practice.  Forced  to  rely  upon  the 
assistance  of  Foissac  and  Dupotet,  their  field  of  investigation 


io6     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

was  naturally  restricted  to  the  subjects  presented  to  them  by 
these  two  gentlemen,  most  of  them  selected  apparently  fof 
the  exhibition  of  sensational  effects.  And,  indeed,  the  Com- 
missioners appear  generally  to  have  allowed  themselves  to  be 
guided  in  their  lines  of  inquiry  by  these  two  enthusiastic 
amateurs  of  the  marvellous.  For,  notwithstanding  the  diffi- 
culties, it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  the  Commissioners 
could  not,  if  they  had  wished,  have  found  a  more  profitable 
field  for  their  investigation.  Bertrand's  second  book,  con- 
taining the  fruit  of  his  later  researches  and  his  mature  reflec- 
tions, was  published  at  the  outset  of  the  Commission's  five 
years*  inquiry.  Bertrand  had  given  cogent  reasons  for  ascrib- 
ing all  the  phenomena  which  the  Commission  had  to  investi- 
gate either  to  the  imagination  of  the  patient  or  to  a  peculiar 
psychological  state  induced  by  psychological  causes.  And 
he  had  shown  that  this  peculiar  psychological  state  possessed 
many  characteristics  in  common  with  delirium  and  religious 
ecstasy  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  spontaneous  noctambulism 
on  the  other.  It  was  probably  open  to  the  Commission  to 
have  enlisted  Bertrand's  aid  in  their  inquiry.  It  was  certainly 
open  to  them  to  have  profited  by  his  experience,  to  have 
repeated  his  observations,  to  have  verified  his  conclusions. 
But  they  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  Bertrand's  name  is  not 
mentioned,  and  his  theories  are  dismissed  in  a  single  line  of 
the  Report. 

The  Commission  was  obsessed,  as  all  their  predecessors 
had  been  obsessed,  with  the  idea  of  a  mysterious  external 
agent  as  the  active  cause  of  all  the  phenomena.  Confining 
themselves  strictly  to  the  physiological  side  of  the  inquiry, 
they  do  not,  indeed,  presume  to  define  this  agent  as  a  fluid, 
celestial,  magnetic,  or  vital.  But  their  whole  Report  is  based 
upon  the  preconception  of  something  passing  from  operator 
to  subject  in  the  process  of  magnetisation  ;  and  the  very 
vagueness  of  their  conception  enables  them  to  discuss  with  a 
light  heart  such  marvels  as  prediction  of  the  future  and  vision 
without  the  aid  of  eyes.  This  presumption  necessarily  guided 
the  whole  course  of  their  inquiry,  which  was  directed  to  dis- 
covering incontrovertible  proofs  of  the  action  of  this  hypo- 


LATER   FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  107 

thetical  influence.  Generally  speaking,  they  found  that  the 
influence  was  conveyed  by  actual  contact  or  by  passes,  but  in 
some  cases  they  claimed  to  have  demonstrated  its  effect  to 
have  been  produced  by  the  mere  will  of  the  operator,  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  subject.  The  Commissioners,  mainly, 
no  doubt,  because  of  their  scanty  opportunities  for  observa- 
tion, scarcely  touch  on  the  question  of  the  curative  influence 
of  Magnetism.  They  found  that  healthy  subjects  are  rarely 
subject  to  the  influence.  Of  the  sick,  most  experience  only 
slight  or  equivocal  results,  such  as  could  readily  be  attributed 
to  normal  causes.  But  in  a  few  cases  the  state  of  somnam- 
bulism was  induced.  They  pass  lightly  over,  or  completely 
neglect,  most  of  the  unsensational,  but  none  the  less 
significant,  characteristics  of  this  state,  already  described  by 
Bertrand.  They  briefly  record,  however,  experiments  and 
observations  tending  to  prove  rapport  with  the  magnetiser 
and  complete  insensibility  to  all  other  sounds  except  his 
voice :  insensibility  to  pain,  oblivion  on  waking,  and  in  one 
case  extraordinary  increase  of  muscular  power.  The  patient 
in  tliis  case,  a  young  law  student  named  Paul  Villagrand, 
who  had  suffered  for  more  than  eighteen  months  from 
paralysis  of  the  left  side,  was  unable,  in  the  normal  state,  using 
both  hands,  to  mark  more  than  31  kilogrammes  on  the 
dynamometer.  On  one  occasion  in  the  somnambulic  state, 
to  prove  his  strength,  he  lifted  one  of  the  Commissioners  and 
whirled  him  round,  and  then  pressed  the  dynamometer  until 
the  scale  marked  160  kilogrammes. 

Amongst  the  more  dubious  phenomena  which  the  Com- 
mission reported  as  proved  are  influence  at  a  distance  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  subject,  intuition  of  the  diseases  of 
others,  the  prediction,  months  ahead,  of  epileptic  fits,  and 
vision  with  closed  eyes.  The  material  available  for  the 
research,  as  said,  was  rather  meagre  ;  and  two  at  least  of  the 
somnambules,  Mdlle.  Celine  and  Mdlle.  Samson,  were  trained 
subjects,  and  not  above  the  suspicion  of  fraud.  The  Com- 
mittee showed  little  judgment  in  their  experiments  and 
extreme  rashness  in  their  conclusions.  They  completely 
ignored  the  reasons  given  by  Bertrand  for  adopting  an  alter- 


io8    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

native  explanation  of  the  alleged  power  of  prevision,  and 
deliberately  chose  the  more  sensational  interpretation,  which 
Bcrtrand's  mature  experience  had  caused  him  to  reject.  In 
any  case  the  data  on  which  their  conclusions  were  founded 
were  quite  insufficient.  The  alleged  phenomena  of  prevision 
had  been  observed  in  two  cases  only.  One  subject  only — 
Mdlle.  Celine — had  proved  her  ability  to  diagnose  and  pre- 
scribe for  the  ailments  of  others.  The  greatest  marvel  of  all 
— clairvoyance — had  been  demonstrated  only  in  two  cases. 

The  Report  was  read  before  the  Academy  in  June,  i83i,by 
M.  Husson,  who  had  been  deputed  by  the  Commission  to 
draw  it  up.  It  was  not  likely  that  a  document  which  set 
forth  on  so  narrow  a  basis  of  fact  such  astounding  conclusions 
would  gain  the  favour  of  the  medical  world,  when  the  careful 
and  long-continued  observations  and  sober  reasoning  of 
Bcrtrand  had  f.iiled  to  win  a  hearing.  Some  of  those  present 
desired  an  opjjortunity  for  discussing  it,  but  Husson  objected 
on  the  ground  that,  as  the  work  of  the  Commissioners 
consisted  of  rigorous  experiments,  there  was  nothing  to 
discuss,  unless,  indeed,  the  intelligence  or  the  integrity  of  the 
Commissioners  themselves  were  to  be  called  in  question. » 
This  statement  is  sufficient  in  itself  to  show  how  unfitted  the 
Commissioners  were  to  discharge  their  task.  Some  writers, 
indeed,  have  proposed  to  throw  the  whole  burden  on  Husson, 
alleging  that  the  rest  of  the  Commissioners  made  themselves 
responsible  only  for  the  accurate  statement  of  the  facts, 
Husson,  as  reported,  for  the  conclusions  based  upon  them.^ 
But  this  contention  is  hardly  consistent  with  the  fact  that  the 
whole  of  the  Commissioners  append  their  signatures  without 

'  "Que  le  travail  de  la  Commission  reposant  tout  enticre  sur  des 
experiences  rigoreuscs,  il  nc  pouvait  donner  lieu  a  aucunc  espcce  de 
discussion,  a  moins  qu'on  n'attaquat  Ics  luinieres  ou  la  moraiite  des 
Commissaires  "  (Foissac,  op.  cil.,  p.  209).  The  Academy  declining  to 
publish  the  Report,  that  task  was  undertaken  by  Foissac,  who  also 
published  a  summary' of  the  several  discussions  on  the  subject.  Husson 
himself  corrected  the  proofs  of  Foissac's  book,  so  far  at  least  as  relates 
to  his  ovi'n  share  in  the  matter.  So  the  Foissac  Report,  from  which  the 
statement  in  the  te.xt  is  quoted,  may  be  taken  as  authoritative. 

'  HisL  acad.,  pp.  332  and  435,  note. 


LATER  FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  109 

reserve  to  the  Report.  Whatever  the  explanation,  Husson 
successfully  evaded  all  attempts  to  bring  about  a  discussion 
on  the  subject  of  the  Report,  and  the  Academy  took  no 
further  action  in  the  matter. 

This  ill-considered  Report,  no  doubt,  did  much  to  hinder  the 
recognition  of  the  subject  amongst  men  of  common-sense 
generally.  The  line  taken  by  the  authors  of  the  Histoire 
academique  in  dealing  with  the  subject  is  a  sufficient 
indication  of  the  attitude  of  the  official  medical  world. 
MM.  Burdin  and  Dubois  pour  out  their  contempt  indiscri- 
minately on  everything  connected  with  Animal  Magnetism  ; 
the  very  existence  of  the  state  of  artificial  somnambulism 
and  the  induction  of  anaesthesia  share  in  the  general 
discredit.^ 

The  practice  of  Animal  Magnetism  and  the  induction  of 
somnambulism  were  not,  however,  left  solely  to  enthusiastic 
amateurs  and  professional  clairvoyants.  Among  the  younger 
members  of  the  medical  profession  there  were  some  who  made 
use  of  the  auxiliary  placed  within  their  reach  ;  and  through 
the  action  of  one  of  them,  a  young  physician  named  Hamard, 
the  subject  again  came  before  the  Academy  at  the  beginning 
of  1837.  Amongst  the  instances  cited  by  the  Commission  of 
1 826- 1 83 1  to  prove  insensibility  to  pain  was  a  case  of  which 


'  The  treatment  of  the  Report  and  the  reporter  by  the  authors  of  the 
Hhl.  acad.  can  scarcely  recommend  itself  to  the  judicious  reader. 
MM.  Burdin  and  Dubois,  not  content  with  criticising  every  observation 
and  controverting  every  argument  in  the  Report,  expend  a  large 
amount  of  petty  spite  in  ridiculing  the  language  employed  by  the 
reporter.  One  of  their  comments  may  be  quoted,  no  sillier  or  more 
spiteful  than  the  similar  notes  which  they  append  to  almost  every  page 
of  their  account.  The  Report  states  that  the  somnambule  will 
occasionally  be  deaf  to  the  loudest  sounds,  such  as  the  clanging  of  a 
copper  vessel,  "  la  chute  dun  meuble,"  &c.  To  which  statement  the 
Histoire  academique  appends  a  note  :  "  M.  Husson  a  voulu  ici  mettre  un 
certain  choix  dans  les  termes,  ennoblir  ses  details  ;  mais  le  fait  est  qu'il 
s'agit  toutsimplcment  d'une  buche  qu'il  a  jctee  parterre"  (p. 439).  The 
comment  is  not  only  small-minded  and  silly,  but  incorrect.  In  the 
account  of  the  actual  experiment  as  given  by  the  joint  authors  them- 
selves (p.  387)  we  find  "  le  rapporteur  jeta  sur  le  parquet  une  (able  ct  une 
buche." 


no    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

they  had  not  themselves  been  witnesses,  but  which  had  been 
reported  at  the  time  to  the  Section  of  Surgery  of  the 
Academy.  Madame  Plaiitin,  aged  64,  was  suffering  from  an 
ulcerated  cancer  in  the  right  breast,  of  some  years'  standing. 
M.  Cloquet  was  called  in  in  April,  1829,  to  operate,  and  the 
patient's  medical  attendant,  M.  Chapelain,  desired,  with  M. 
Cloquet's  consent,  to  put  her  into  the  somnambulic  trance 
(luring  the  operation  of  extirpating  the  tumour.  The  experi- 
ment was  a  complete  success.  The  patient  prepared  herself 
fur  the  operation  and  seated  herself  in  the  chair,  without  being 
held  or  bound.  The  operation  lasted  ten  or  twelve  minutes, 
and  the  patient  remained  throughout  perfectly  calm,  betraying 
no  sign  of  pain  or  uneasiness,  and  conversing  quietly  with 
the  operator.  The  pulse  and  breathing  remained  unchanged. 
The  patient  was  not  wakened  from  the  trance  until  two  days 
later.  She  then  retained  no  recollection  of  the  operation,  but 
on  seeing  her  children  and  hearing  what  had  taken  place 
became  so  profoundly  affected  that  it  was  thought  prudent 
again  to  induce  the  trance.  The  Section  had  been  sufficiently 
interested  in  M.  Cloquet's  report  to  appoint  a  committee  of 
inquiry.  But  the  relatives  refused  to  allow  the  Committee, 
or  any  member  of  it,  to  see  the  patient,  who,  in  fact,  died 
of  pleurisy  within  three  weeks  of  the  operation.  The 
Committee,  however,  assisted  at  the  autopsy,  and  reported 
that  the  clairvoyant's  statement  that  her  liver  was  diseased 
proved  to  be  incorrect.  Apparently  the  Committee  and  the 
Section  considered  that  this  circumstance  dispensed  them 
from  the  necessity  of  paying  any  further  attention  to  the 
matter.  A  woman  who  was  capable  of  telling  a  falsehood 
about  her  own  liver  was  clearly  not  to  be  trusted  when  she 
pretended  to  feel  no  pain  during  a  surgical  operation. 

M.  Cloquet's  case,  as  said,  had  taken  place  in  1829.  But  in 
1836  the  young  doctor  Hamard  invited  a  member  of  the 
Academy,  M.  Oudet,  to  extract  a  tooth  from  a  somnambulic 
patient.  The  operation  was  successfully  performed  ;  it  made 
some  noise  in  the  Press,  but  M.  Oudet  refrained  from 
reporting  it  to  the  Academy.  Some  weeks  later,  in  January, 
1837,  in  reply  to  a  challenge  from  a  colleague,  he  explained 


LATER  FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  in 

that  he  had  deliberately  kept  silence,  fearing  to  involve  the 
Academy  in  a  fruitless  discussion,  "  car  les  faits  ne  se 
discutent  pas,  on  les  accepte  ou  on  les  rejette,  il  n'y  a  pas  de 
troisieme  parti  a  prendre."  To  satisfy  his  colleagues'  wishes, 
however,  he  consented  to  speak,  but  he  warned  them  that  he 
was  not  prepared  to  discuss  the  question  of  Magnetism,  and 
that  he  must  confine  himself  strictly  to  the  role  of  an 
historian.  What  follows  is  curiously  significant  of  the 
reluctance  of  medical  men  to  imperil  their  reputation  by  even 
the  remotest  contact  with  Animal  Magnetism.  From 
Oudet's  speech  it  must  have  been  inferred  that  he  was  himself 
going  to  describe  to  his  colleagues  what  he  had  seen  and 
done — for  how  else  could  he  play  the  part  of  an  historian  ? 
Perhaps  at  the  actual  meeting  of  the  Academy  he  did  so ; 
but  in  the  official  bulletin  of  the  Society  we  find,  not  a  speech 
by  Oudet,  but  a  report  by  the  magnetiser,  Hamard,  given 
"  with  the  approval  of  M.  Oudet."  ^ 

The  patient  was  a  woman  of  twenty-five,  exceptionally 
nervous  and  sensitive  to  pain.  She  showed  the  utmost  dread 
of  the  operation  when  it  was  proposed  to  her,  and  almost  had 
an  attack  of  convulsions,  Hamard  succeeded,  however,  in 
inducing  the  trance  ;  the  patient's  insensibility  was  tested  by 
the  ordinary  processes,  by  pricking  her  severely  in  several 
places  with  a  pin,  and  by  holding  her  finger  for  some  seconds 
in  the  flame  of  a  candle.  In  reply  to  a  direct  question  Oudet 
testified  that  the  skin  was  burnt  by  the  flame.  The  tooth  was 
then  extracted,  but  the  patient  did  not  seem  to  know  what 
had  happened,  and  took  no  notice  of  the  suggestion  that  she 
should  wash  out  her  mouth.  Awakened  from  the  trance  she 
was  astonished  and  relieved  to  find  that  her  tooth  was  gone. 

Here  were  two  plain  statements  of  fact.  It  is  curious  to 
see  the  effect  of  them  upon  the  elite  of  the  medical  profession 
in  France.  Two  or  three  doctors  described  in  their  own 
practice  operations  at  which  the  patients  by  mere  force  of 
will  had  suppressed  all  signs  of  pain  ;  the  authors  of  the 
Histoire  academique  recall  that  in  the  Conscription  recruits 
would  frequently  feign  epileptic  fits  and  maintain  their 
"  Hht.  acad.,  p.  453. 


n2    MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

simulated  insensibility  through  tolerably  severe  tests.  Several 
speakers  plainly  intimated  their  belief  that  both  Cloquet  and 
Oudet  had  been  deceived  by  their  patients.  Just  as  the  one 
side  was  obsessed  by  the  idea  of  Magnetism,  so  the  medical 
world  was  obsessed  by  the  idea  of  fraud.  For  the  most  part 
fraud  was  imputed  to  the  subjects  only.  But  Burdin  and 
Dubois  do  not  hesitate  to  explain  the  alleged  induction  of 
somnambulism  at  a  distance,  of  which  two  or  three  cases  were 
recorded  in  Husson's  Report,  by  collusion  between  the  subject 
and  the  operator.  The  operator  was  M.  Foissac,  a  member  of 
their  own  profession. » 

With  subjects  who  were  for  the  most  part  poor,  unedu- 
cated, and  liable  to  all  the  infirmities  and  perversions  which 
accompany  the  hysterical  temperament,  there  was,  no  doubt, 
good  reason  for  suspecting  fraud  as  the  true  cause  of  the 
marvels  recounted  by  the  magnetiser.  Mdlle.  Celine  and 
her  tribe,  as  we  have  seen  in  recent  times  at  the  Charite 
under  the  late  Dr.  Luys,  will  always  find  ways  and  means  of 
fulfilling  what  is  expected  of  them.  But  the  case  of  Madame 
Plantin  was  not  that  of  an  hysterical  girl,  willing  at  no  cost 
to  herself  to  humour  the  fancies  of  her  magnetiser  by  going 
into  pretended  convulsions,  or  surreptitiously  glancing  under 
closed  eyelids.  Madame  Plantin  was  an  old  woman,  about 
to  submit  herself  to  a  serious  and,  as  it  proved,  fatal  opera- 
tion. Nor  was  it  here  simply  a  question  of  a  firm  will.  Either 
Madame  Plantin  was  in  a  somnambulic  trance,  and  insensible 
to  pain,  or  else  she  deliberately  feigned  to  be  so,  and  feigned 
also  the  vivid  emotion  with  which,  on  waking  from  her  simu- 
lated trance,  she  received  the  congratulations  of  her  children. 
What  conceivable  motive  could  have  induced  an  elderly 
woman,  on  the  threshold  of  death,  to  undertake  and  carry 
through  a  prolonged  deception  of  this  kind  ?  But  the  last 
word  of  fanatic  incredulity  does  not  rest  with  the  French 
physicians  of  1837.  It  was  reserved  for  an  English  surgeon 
ten  years  later  to  suggest  that  remorse  for  the  part  which  she 
had  played  contributed  to  bring  about  poor  Madame  Plantin's 
death.2 

•  Hist,  acad.,  pp.  415,  416,  note.  •  See  Zoist,  vol.  i.  p.  209. 


LATER   FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  113 

Possibly  even  the  Academy  felt  that  the  hypothesis  of 
cleHberate  fraud  in  such  a  case  was  beaten  a  little  too  thin, 
and  that  the  subject  could  not  be  so  summarily  dismissed. 
At  any  rate,  before  the  conclusion  of  the  adjourned  dis- 
cussion on  Oudet's  case,  a  letter  was  received  from  a  young 
physician,  Berna,  offering  to  demonstrate  on  some  subjects  of 
his  own  facts  conclusive  in  favour  of  Magnetism.  It  was 
resolved  to  accept  the  invitation,  and  a  committee  of  nine 
members,  including  Oudet  himself  and  Dubois  (of  Amiens), 
part  author  of  the  Histoire  acadanique,  was  appointed  to 
meet  M.  Berna.  The  chief  phenomena  which  M.  Berna 
proposed  to  demonstrate  to  the  Committee  at  the  outset 
were  the  state  of  somnambulism,  insensibility  to  pain,  and 
the  action  of  his  unexpressed  will  on  the  somnambule,  as 
shown  by  the  loss  or  restoration  of  movement  and  sensation 
in  any  particular  limb.  The  subject  was  a  young  woman  of 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  age.  Three  sittings  were 
devoted  to  experiments  on  the  lines  indicated  above,  but  the 
results  were  quite  inconclusive.  The  insensibility  and  the 
inability — real  or  alleged — to  move  the  limbs  failed  to  corre- 
spond with  the  intention  of  the  magnetiser,  dictated  to  him  by 
the  Committee.  The  Committee  obviously  suspected  the 
>'oung  woman  of  deliberately  feigning  trance,  insensibility, 
and  immobility.  In  the  light  of  fuller  knowledge  there  seems 
no  reason  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  exhibition  ;  but 
Berna  was  clearly  mistaken  in  attributing  the  results  to  his 
unexpressed  will.  For  when,  under  the  stringent  conditions 
enforced  by  the  Committee,  no  indication  of  his  intention  was 
allowed  to  appear,  the  subject  found  herself  at  fault,  and  the 
results  followed  at  random. 

Failing  to  find  any  proof  of  Magnetism  in  these  incon- 
clusive results,  the  Committee  asked  Berna  for  a  more 
decisive  test.  At  the  fourth  and  last  sitting  a  new  subject, 
a  woman  of  thirty,  attended  for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating 
clairvoyance  and  transposition  of  sensation.  Again,  under 
the  strict  conditions  imposed  by  the  Committee,  the  marvel 
failed  of  demonstration.  The  subject's  eyes  were  bandaged 
and  cards  or  other  objects  were  held  behind  her  head  or  on 


114    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

her  forehead,  Berna  being  in  every  case  ignorant  of  the 
object.  Not  only  did  the  subject  fail  to  describe  what  was 
there,  but  she  unfortunately  essayed  to  describe  what  was 
not  there.  The  demonstration  seemed  to  the  Committee 
conclusive  of  fraud.  Berna  was  not  prepared  to  offer  any 
more  subjects  for  experiment ;  no  other  magnetiser  responded 
to  the  Committee's  invitation,  issued  through  advertisement 
in  the  Press,  to  submit  themselves  and  their  patients  to  in- 
vestigation ;  and  the  Committee  on  July  17,  1837,  presented  | 
to  the  Academy  their  Report.  In  summarising  the  results 
they  found  that  no  proof  had  been  afforded  of  the  existence 
of  the  alleged  magnetic  somnambulism,  nor  of  the  abolition 
or  restoration  of  sensibility,  nor  of  induced  paralysis,  nor  of 
the  influence  of  the  unexpressed  will  of  the  operator,  nor  of 
transposition  of  the  senses,  nor  of  clairvoyance.  In  con- 
nection with  the  last-named  subject,  they  regarded  the 
attempts  of  the  clairvoyant  to  describe  things  which  were 
ncjt  really  there  as  specially  significant.  They  concluded 
that  Berna  had  himself  been  deceived,  and  saw  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  all  other  magnetisers  were  in  like  case.  "  If 
they  have  anything  to  show,  they  have  not  ventured  to 
produce  it  in  the  full  light  of  day ;  they  have  not  ven- 
tured to  challenge  the  approval  or  condemnation  of  the 
Academy."  ' 

The  reading  of  the  Report  elicited  a  vehement  and  not 
altogether  unreasonable  protest  from  M.  Ilusson.  The 
verdict,  based  upon  a  few  hours'  experiments  with  two 
subjects,  could  at  most  be  accepted  as  a  verdict  upon 
M.  Berna's  pretensions ;  it  was  not  a  judgment  passed 
upon  Animal  Magnetism.  But  Husson  found  no  sup- 
porters ;  the  question  was  put  to  the  vote,  and  the 
conclusions  of  the  Report  adopted  by  a  very  large 
majority. 

But  the  verdict  of  the  Academy  of  Medicine  seemed  likely 
to  have  small  immediate  effect  upon  the  future  of  Animal 
.Magnetism,  which  offered  a  lucrative  and  unlaborious  liveli- 
hood to  so  many  medical  clairvoyants  and  itinerant  enter- 
'  Hist,  acad.,  p.  511. 


LATER   FRENCH    COMMISSIONS  115 

tainers.  In  both  cases  the  chief  item  in  the  programme 
was  this  very  clairvoyance  or  transposition  of  vision.  Again, 
from  the  scientific  standpoint  this  alleged  faculty  was  the 
only  one  of  all  the  marvels  vaunted  by  the  magnetiser  which 
could  be  readily  tested.  Somnambulism,  insensibility  to  pain, 
paralysis,  could  all  be  feigned  ;  the  predictions  of  epileptic 
fits  could  be  made  to  work  out  their  own  fulfilment  ;  the 
description  of  diseased  organs  must  wait  for  its  verification 
until  the  death  of  the  patient.  But  vision  without  eyes  could 
be  tested  on  the  spot  and  without  the  possibility  of  error 
or  deception.  Moved  by  these  considerations,  a  member  of 
the  Academy,  M.  Burdin,  deposited  with  a  notary  the  sum  of 
three  thousand  francs  as  a  prize  for  the  person  who  should 
first  prove  his  ability  to  read  without  the  aid  of  eyes.'f  A 
committee  was  appointed  to  examine  the  claims  of  any 
candidates  who  should  present  themselves.  The  Committee 
met  on  January  2,  1838,  to  consider  six  letters  from  pro- 
vincial doctors  and  others  describing  the  clairvoyance  of 
their  subjects.  M.  Ricard,  of  Bordeaux,  assured  the  Com- 
mittee that  there  were  more  than  a  thousand  magnetisers 
who  could  demonstrate  clairvoyance  in  their  subjects.  Dr. 
Despines,  of  Aix,  had  witnessed  transposition  of  sensation  at 
least  five  hundred,  probably  a  thousand,  times.  But  none  of 
the  Committee's  correspondents  were  ready  to  submit  their 
subjects  forthwith  to  examination.  Some  found  a  difficulty 
in  conveying  themselves  and  their  clairvoyants  to  Paris  ; 
others  required  a  longer  time  to  enable  their  clairvoyants 
to  develop  their  powers  to  perfection.  In  other  cases  the 
relatives  refused  their  consent  to  a  trial  in  public.  In  the 
event  two  magnetisers  only  presented  themselves  before 
the  Committee ;  and  only  one  somnambule  was  actually 
offered  for  examination.  M.  Pigeaire,  a  doctor  from  Mont- 
pelier,  came  to  Paris  in  May,    1838,  bringing  with  him  his 

'  Histoire  academique,  p.  575.  The  original  wording  runs,  "  sans  le 
secours  des  yeux  et  de  la  lumiere."  But  the  last  four  words  were 
subsequently  omitted  on  the  representations  of  M.  Pigeaire  that  his 
clairvoyant  found  it  essential  that  the  object  should  be  strongly  illu- 
minated. 


ii6     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

}oung  daughter,  who  was  alleged  to  be  clairvoyant.  After 
spending  some  weeks  in  giving  demonstrations  of  his 
daughter's  powers  to  various  distinguished  persons,  he 
wrote  to  the  Committee  for  an  appointment,  at  the  same 
time  indicating  the  lines  upon  which  he  wished  the  experi- 
ment to  proceed.  The  Committee  naturally  replied  that  it 
was  for  them  to  determine  the  conditions.  The  Committee 
had  prepared  a  screen  of  black  silk,  so  contrived  as  to  be 
suspended  by  iron  wires  about  six  inches  in  front  of  the  face. 
This,  while  effectually  excluding  all  rays  of  light  from  the 
object  to  be  described,  would  have  enabled  the  Committee  to 
watch  the  eyes  of  the  subject.  On  the  proposed  screen  being 
shown  to  M.  Pigeaire,  he  objected  that  it  was  essential  to 
exclude  light  from  the  subject's  eyes  ;  and  he  prolTered  for 
use  a  bandage  of  black  velvet,  such  as  the  clairvoyant  was  in 
the  habit  of  using.  M.  Double,  the  president  of  the  Com- 
mittee, pointed  out  to  M.  Pigeaire  that  this  bandage,  which 
was  only  two  or  three  inches  broad,  was  scarce!)-  large  enough 
to  form  an  effective  safeguard.  He  intimated  that  it  would 
be  acceptable  to  the  Committee  if  it  were  made  somewhat 
larger,  so  as  to  cover  part  of  the  cheeks.  M.  Pigeaire  replied 
that  it  was  essential  to  the  success  of  the  experiment  that  the 
face  should  not  be  covered,  on  the  ground,  as  he  seems  to 
have  suggested,  that  vision  was  possibly  effected  by  means  of 
the  fifth  nerve  which  supplies  the  face.  M.  Double,  who,  like 
the  rest  of  the  Committee,  had  received  accounts  of  Mdlle. 
Pigeaire's  demonstrations  and  had  grounds  for  something 
more  than  suspicion,  pointed  out  that  under  such  conditions, 
however  carefully  the  eyes  were  plastered  and  the  enveloping 
bandage  applied,  it  was  always  possible  for  crevices  to  be 
left,  or  to  develop  subsequently,  through  which  light  might 
penetrate  to  the  eyes.  The  Committee  were  willing,  how- 
ever, to  accept  M.  Pigeaire's  bandage,  with  all  its  imper- 
fections, if  he  would  consent  that  the  book  to  be  read  should 
be  held  not,  as  was  Mdlle.  Pigeaire's  custom,  on  her  lap  or  on 
the  table — that  is,  below  the  level  of  the  eyes— but  directly  in 
front  of  the  eyes,  so  that  no  ray  of  light  could  reach  the  eye 
except  through  the  bandages.     M.  Pigeaire  refused  to  accept 


LATER   FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  117 

these  conditions,  and  Mdlle.  Pigeaire  did    not   pursue   her 
candidature  for  the  prize.' 

The  only  somnambule  whose  claim  appears  to  have 
been  actually  tested  by  the  Committee,  and  that  not  until 
the  offer  of  the  prize  had  been  specially  prolonged  for  a 
twelvemonth  beyond  the  original  term  of  two  years,  was 
a  subject  magnetised  by  Dr.  Teste,  afterwards  well  known 
as  a  writer  on  the  subject.  Teste  informed  the  Committee 
that  he  had  two  subjects  who  could  read  writing  enclosed 
in  cardboard  or  wooden  boxes,  the  sole  condition  being 
that  they  should  be  informed  of  the  direction  of  the  lines 
of  print  or  writing.  The  Committee  accordingly  prepared 
several  boxes,  each  containing  some  printed  or  written 
characters.  From  these  a  small  square  cardboard  box 
was  chosen.  The  box  was  handed  to  the  somnambule, 
who  in  handling  and  turning  it  round  broke  one  of  the 
paper  bands  which  secured  it.  Finally,  after  the  lapse  of 
an  hour,  she  announced  that  she  could  see  two  lines  of 
print,  and  that  she  could  read  the  two  words  "  nous  sommes." 
The  box  on  being  opened  was  found  to  contain  six  lines 
of  poetry  quoted  from  La  Gtierre  de  Jiigurtha,  by  Leprevost. 
Neither  of  the  two  words  given  by  the  somnambule 
occurred  in  the  quotation.  With  this,  their  first  and  last 
experiment,  the  labours  of  the  Burdin  Committee  termi- 
nated.    In  reporting  the  results  to  the  Academy  M.  Double 

'  M.  Pigeaire's  account  of  the  interview  with  M.  Double  (Puissance 
de  VEledricitc  animale,  Paris,  1839)  does  not  differ  materially  from  that 
given  by  the  authors  of  the  Hist,  acad.,  on  which  the  account  in  the 
text  is  based.  But  the  former  quotes  from  the  Gazette  Medicate  of  July 
28,  1838,  a  detailed  report  professing  to  give  an  account  of  an  actual 
experiment  made  by  the  Commission  on  Mdlle.  Pigeaire,  in  which  the 
girl  is  reported  to  have  contorted  her  face  and  her  body,  and  thus  dis- 
placed the  bandages  sufficiently  to  read.  As  no  such  experiment  ever 
took  place  before  the  Commission,  Pigeaire  is  naturally  indignant. 
MM.  Burdin  and  Dubois,  in  commenting  on  the  matter,  throw  the 
whole  blame  on  Pigeaire  for  accepting  the  report  without  verifying  it 
from  the  archives  of  the  Academy.  But  as  both  Pigeaire  and  the 
authors  of  the  Hist.  acad.  are  agreed  that  the  report  in  the  Gazette 
Medicate  contained  grave  misstatements  of  fact,  it  was  surely  the  duty 
of  the  Academy  to  have  corrected  it. 


ii8     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

proposed  that  thereafter  the  Academy  should  cease  to 
concern  itself  with  the  question  of  Animal  Magnetism, 
and  should  refuse  to  accede  to  anj'  further  demand  for 
investigation.  "  L'academie  de  Mcdecine  a  aussi  ses 
questions  de  mouvement  perpc^tuel  et  de  quadrature  du 
cercle  dont  elle  doit  desormais  refuser  de  s'occuper." » 

So  far  as  the  question  of  reading  with  the  eyes  bandaged 
was  concerned  the  Committee's  conclusion  was,  no  doubt, 
justified.  But  their  justification  consisted,  not  in  the  single 
experiment  cited,  but  in  other  contemporary  facts  which  had 
come  to  their  knowledge.  Any  one  who  cares  to  make  the 
experiment  by  pricking  a  card  with  a  pin  will  find  that  a 
very  small  hole  suffices  for  distinct  vision,  provided  that  the 
conditions  are  favourable.  Amongst  these  conditions  are 
that  the  object  to  be  seen  should  be  clearly  illuminated  ; 
that  the  hole  should  be  near  the  eye  ;  and  that  as  far  as 
possible  all  other  light  should  be  excluded  from  the  eye, 
except  that  which  proceeds  from  the  object  itself.  Now 
these  conditions  were  all  fulfilled  in  such  experiments  as 
those  conducted  by  Mdlle.  Pigeaire.  Pigeaire  himself  pre- 
vailed upon  Burdin  to  modify  his  original  offer,  so  as  to 
permit  of  the  object  being  illuminated  ;  the  black  velvet 
bandage  effectually  excluded  from  the  eyes  all  light  from 
general  sources.  It  remains  to  prove  the  possibility  of  light 
from  the  object  reaching  the  eye  through  a  narrow  channel 
or  pinhole.  Short  of  placing  the  object  in  a  closed  box  the 
best  methods  of  effectually  excluding  such  a  possibility  are 
to  hold  a  screen  of  suitable  size  in  front  of  the  eyes,  or  to 
allow  the  bandage  to  cover  a  great  part  of  ^the  face.  It  has 
been  shown  that  Pigeaire  absolutely  refused  to  allow  either 
of  these  methods  to  be  adopted.  But  the  crevices  can  be 
rendered  useless  if  the  object  is  held  straight  in  front  of  the 
face,  i.e.,  approximately  at  right  angles  to  any  possible 
crevice.  This  precaution,  again,  Pigeaire  refused  to  adopt. 
That  Mdlle.  Pigeaire  did  actually  see  cards  and  read  books 
by  means  of  such  crevices  in  the  bandaging  is  not  merely 
matter  of  conjecture  or  suspicion.  M.  Burdin's  Committee 
'  Hhi.  acad.,  p.  630. 


II 


LATER   FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  119 

appear,  indeed,  neither  collectively  nor  individually  to  have 
witnessed  her  performances.  But  another  observer.  Pro- 
fessor Gerdy — to  whom  the  Histoire  acadciiiique  is  dedicated 
— has  left  us  a  full  account  of  what  took  place.  The 
somnambule's  eyes  were  covered  by  a  band  of  calico,  then 
by  small  pellets  of  cotton  (?  cotton-wool)  ;  the  black  velvet 
band  already  described  was  tied  over  all,  and  its  lower  edge 
attached  to  the  cheek  by  small  bands  of  gummed  "  taffetas." 
The  bands  were  not  continuous.  At  Gerdy's  first  sitting  the 
girl  complained  of  headache,  moved  her  eyebrows  a  good 
deal  and  rubbed  her  forehead  and  eyes  with  her  hand,  and 
on  her  mother's  bosom.  After  a  full  hour  of  this  nothing  had 
taken  place,  and  Gerdy  had  to  leave.  On  the  second  occa- 
sion Gerdy  was  requested  himself  to  apply  the  bandages ; 
but  it  was  Pigeaire  who  arranged  the  gummed  slips  of 
taffetas,  and  though  Gerdy  did  his  best,  he  found  that  some 
crevices  remained  between  the  gummed  slips.  The  girl,  who 
had  been  quite  quiet  until  the  bandage  was  put  on,  again 
began  to  complain  and  to  fidget  with  the  bandage.  Some  of 
the  gummed  slips  partially  detached  themselves,  and  fresh 
crevices  appeared  between  the  velvet  and  the  skin.  Then 
the  girl  pushed  her  finger  under  the  upper  edge  of  the 
bandage  and  altered  the  position  of  the  cotton.  Finally, 
after  a  considerable  interval,  she  played  at  cards,  and  read  a 
book,  placed  in  a  position  chosen  by  herself  She  was 
unable  to  read  when  the  book  was  placed  directly  in  front  of 
her  eyes.  When  the  experiment  was  concluded,  Gerdy  was 
allowed  to  remove  the  bandages.  He  did  so  from  above, 
leaving  the  lower  edge  of  the  velvet  intact.  When  he  had 
taken  out  the  calico  and  the  cotton-wool  he  was  able,  by 
placing  the  girl's  head  in  a  suitable  position,  to  see  several 
small  crevices  between  the  bandage  and  the  skin  through 
which  the  daylight  showed. 

Gerdy  was  present  at  similar  trials  with  two  other 
somnambules,  Callyste  and  Prudence,  and  in  each  case  he 
made  similar  obser^'ations.  Callyste  disturbed  the  bandage 
by  grimaces  and  movements  of  the  facial  muscles.  It  was 
replaced  again  and  again  in  its  former  position ;  and  again 


I20    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

and  again  Callyste  repeated  the  manoeuvre.  The  experiment 
failed.  In  Callyste's  case  the  bandaging  had  consisted  of 
cotton-wool  and  a  handkerchief.  In  the  case  of  Prudence 
the  bandage  consisted  solely  of  slips  of  gummed  taffetas 
crossing  each  other  and  fastened  to  the  skin.  Prudence 
did  not  complain  of  headache  and  made  no  grimaces.  But 
her  name  was  justified.  For  the  taffetas,  which  had  been 
moistened  to  admit  of  its  being  applied  to  the  skin,  naturally 
shrank  somewhat  in  drying,  and  in  a  few  minutes  afforded 
all  the  crevices  required.  Gerdy  demonstrated  their  exist- 
ence by  slipping  pieces  of  thick  paper  into  them.  Later,  a 
friend  of  Gerdy's  had  himself  bandaged  by  an  enthusiastic 
magnetist  in  the  same  way  as  Mdlle.  Prudence,  and 
succeeded  easily  in  seeing.  The  light,  he  found,  came  to 
him  chiefly  from  below,  and  by  the  inner  angle  of  the  eye, 
;>.,  along  the  nose.  Further,  he  found  that  the  taffetas, 
which  was  saturated  with  fish-glue,  became  semi-transparent 
when  moistened. I 

Another  experiment  in  clairvoyance  which  took  place 
shortly  after  the  report  of  the  Burdin  Committee  is  not  less 
instructive.  Ilublier,  a  doctor  of  Provins,  had  written  to 
the  Academy  in  1837  that  he  had  an  excellent  clairvoyant, 
whom  he  was  preparing  for  examination.  But  the 
somnambule  was  not  forthcoming,  and  in  September,  I040, 
Frappart,  a  doctor  who,  though  not  a  member  of  the  Burdin 
Committee,  had  taken  a  keen  interest  in  the  subject,  wrote  to 
Hublier  to  remind  him  that  the  term  fixed  for  competing 
for  the  Burdin  prize  would  expire  in  ten  days.  Hublier 
replied  by  sending  his  somnambule,  Emelie,  not  to  the 
Commission,  but  to  PVappart.  Emelie  came  to  Frappart's 
house,  and  was  sent  into  the  somnambulic  stale  by  means  of 
a  ring  magnetised  by  Hublier  which  she  had  brought  wiih 


'  The  Society  for  Psychical  Research  has  conducted  several  experi- 
ments in  "  clairvoyance  "  with  subjects  whose  eyes  were  bandaged.  The 
results  have  always  been  the  same.  It  is  practically  inipos>ihle  to 
bandage  the  eyes  so  as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  vision  through 
crevices;  but  the  interposition  of  a  screen  has  always  stoj>ped  the 
clairvoyance.    See  the  Journal  of  the  Society,  vol.  i.  p.  84. 


LATER   FRENCH   COMMISSIONS  121 

her.  The  first  essay  in  clairvoyance  proved  unsuccessful. 
Mdlle.  Emelie  professed  to  be  embarrassed  in  the  exercise 
of  her  faculty  by  the  number  of  books  in  Frappart's  library. 
Frappart  suggested  that  the  trial  should  take  place  in  the 
adjoining  room,  and  that  one  book  only  should  be  placed 
before  her.  Matters  were  arranged  accordingly,  and  Frap- 
part, having  seen  the  somnambule  pass  into  what  was 
apparently  a  magnetic  trance,  left  her  alone,  and  going 
into  the  next  room,  applied  his  eye  to  a  hole  which  he 
had  made  in  the  partition  dividing  the  two  rooms.  In  a  few 
minutes  he  saw  two  hands  stretched  out,  the  book  was 
seized,  and  the  somnambule  diligently  studied  it  for  some 
time.  When  Frappart  returned  the  somnambule  had  no 
difficulty  in  proving  her  clairvoyant  powers.  Frappart 
summoned  Hublier  from  the  country,  and  the  same  comedy 
was  played  a  few  days  later  before  a  large  audience  of 
doctors. 

The  question  of  clairvoyance  thus  disposed  of,  the  official 
medical  world  in  France,  as  we  have  seen,  felt  themselves 
dispensed  from  any  further  obligations  in  regard  to  Animal 
Magnetism.  The  study  was  still  pursued,  subterraneously, 
so  to  speak,  and  we  shall  have  occasion  later  to  treat  of  some 
of  its  non-scientific  or  mystical  developments.  It  was  not, 
however,  until  the  appearance  of  Liebeault's  book,  Du 
Sornmeil  et  des  etats  analogues^  in  1866,  nearly  thirty  years 
after  the  date  of  the  Burdin  Committee,  that  the  importance 
of  the  subject  for  therapeutics  and  psychology  began  to  be 
recognised. 


CHAPTER   VII 

MESMERISM   IN   ENGLAND 

Professor  Bell,  dc  Mainauduc,  and  others — Demonstrations  by 
Chcncvix  in  1829:  Chcncvix  a  believer  in  suggestion— Elliotson's 
demonstrations  in  1838  at  University  College  on  the  Okey  girls- 
Suspicions  of  fraud — The  case  of  Anne  Ross  and  others — Wakley's 
counter-experiments  with  the  Okeys — EUiotson  resigns  from  Univer- 
sity College — Induced  anaesthesia  and  the  incredulity  of  the  medical 
profession  :  the  case  of  Wombell  and  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Society  : 
Esdaile's  painless  surgery  in  India  :  Lord  Ducie  and  the  Medical 
Gazette — Braid's  view  :  his  hypothesis  of  suggestion,  and  liis  counter- 
experiments — Discovery  of  chloroform,  growth  of  modern  Spiritualism 
and  concurrent  decay  of  interest  in  Mesmerism. 

IN  the  discussion  which  preceded  the  appointment  of  the 
second  French  Commission  the  land  of  the  immortal 
Newton,  as  we  have  seen,  was  held  up  to  honour 
because  above  almost  every  civilised  nation  it  had  steadily 
pursued  the  exact  sciences,  and  disdained  the  moonshine  and 
mysticism  of  Animal  Magnetism.  On  the  whole  the  eulogy 
was  not  undeserved.  But  some  echoes  of  the  marvellous 
doings  of  Mesmer  and  his  followers  had  nevertheless  from 
time  to  time  reached  the  shores  of  these  islands.  So  early  as 
1785  one  Dr.  Bell,  member  of  the  Philosophical  Harmonic 
Society  of  Paris,  and  fellow  correspondent  of  Court  de 
Gebelin's  Museum,  came  to  England  and  lectured  through- 
out the  country — at  London,  Dublin,  Bristol,  Cheltenham, 
Gloucester,  Worcester,  Wolverhampton,  and  elsewhere.  He 
brought  with  him  credentials  signed  by  Despremenil,  Ber- 
gasse,  Puys6gur,  and  other  well-known  practitioners  in  Paris. 
Bell  is  the  first  of  that  tribe  of  itinerant  professors  who  have 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  123 

for  more  than  a  century  exploited  the  art  for  commercial 
purposes.  There  is  a  curious  remark  in  one  of  his  lectures 
which  betrays  his  attitude,  and  marks  him  off  from  generous 
enthusiasts,  such  as  were  Puysegur  and  many  of  the  early 
French  magnetisers.  He  recommends  his  disciples  to  have 
as  little  to  do  as  possible  with  scrofula,  cutaneous  eruptions, 
and  consumption;  such  diseases  were  very  dangerous  to  treat. 
In  the  first  two  cases  the  magnetiser  may  contract  the 
disease,  in  the  last  he  may  impart  too  much  of  his  own  vital 
force  to  the  sufferer.  For  the  rest  his  lectures  faithfully 
reflect  the  ideas  of  the  time.  He  employed  a  Baquet  and 
gave  his  pupils  detailed  instructions  for  its  construction.  In 
treating  the  sick  he  places  the  patient  with  his  back  to  the 
north,  he  makes  free  use  of  mineral  magnets  and  of  mag- 
netised water,  he  gives  instructions  also  for  magnetising  coins, 
trees,  rivers,  and  other  objects.  He  describes  the  aura  which 
streams  from  the  magnetiser  and  can  be  seen  by  sensitive 
patients  as  a  soft  radiance.  "  A  celebrated  monk,"  who  took 
off  part  of  his  clothing  in  a  dark  room,  was  told  by  his  patient 
that  he  shone  like  the  sun.^ 

Bell  was  followed  in  1788  by  de  Mainauduc,  a  pupil  of 
Deslon.  A  few  years  later  several  native  professors  of  the 
art  came  into  prominence,  amongst  whom  the  best  known  is 
Loutherbourg,  the  artist.  It  is  reported  that  on  one  occasion 
three  thousand  persons  endeavoured  to  get  admission  to  his 
lectures  in  Hammersmith.  Most  of  the  practitioners  in  Eng- 
land at  this  time  appear  to  have  been  without  medical  train- 
ing, and  apparently  their  chief  concern  in  the  matter  was 
their  pecuniary  advantage.  De  Mainauduc  charged  twenty- 
five  guineas  for  a  course  of  lectures.  Holloway's  fee  was  five 
guineas,  whilst  tickets  for  Loutherbourg's  lectures  are  said  to 
have  been  sold  for  a  guinea  apiece.^  But  a  physician  at 
Bristol,  George  Winter,  who  is  our  authority  for  the  details 
given  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  appears  to  have  used  it 

*  The  General  and  Particular  Principles  of  Animal  Electricity  and 
Magnetism,  &c.,  by  Monsieur  le  Docteur  Bell,  1792.  Entered  in 
Stationers'  Hall. 

'  Animal  Magnetism,  &c.,  by  George  Winter,  M.D.,  Bristol,  1801. 


124    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

with  success  in  his  private  practice  for  some  years,  and  there 
were  doubtless  others.  In  1798,  however,  Perkins  appeared 
on  the  scene  with  his  Metallic  Tractors,  and  after  Dr.  Hay- 
garth  had  demonstrated  that  tractors  of  wood  painted  to 
resemble  iron  were  equally  efficacious  in  the  cure  of  rheuma- 
tism and  gout,  the  popular  craze  for  marvellous  remedies 
seems  to  have  died  down.  It  is  probable  that  Animal  | 
Magnetism  did  not  at  this  time  produce  any  effect  on 
scientific  opinion  in  this  country. 

Even  after  the  revival  of  interest  on  the  Continent  at  the 
close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  Animal  Magnetism  attracted 
little  attention  in  England.  We  hear  little  more  of  it,  indeed, 
until  1829.  In  that  year  the  subject  was  brought  forward  by 
Richard  Chenevix,  F.R.S.,  a  well-known  chemist  and  miner- 
alogist. Chenevix  had  been  resident  for  many  years  in  Paris, 
and  had  there  learnt  how  to  magnetise  from  the  Abbe  Faria. 
He  began  by  treating  the  children  of  some  Irish  peasants 
who  were  brought  to  him  to  be  cured  of  epilepsy  and  other 
complaints.  Before  his  departure  from  Ireland  he  taught 
the  parents  to  treat  the  children  themselves,  holding  that 
Mesmerism  was  an  art  that  could  be  practised  by  all.  At 
the  time  when  he  wrote  his  account  of  his  experiments 
he  had  eleven  patients  under  treatment  by  relatives  and 
friends  whom  he  had  taught  to  practise  Mesmerism.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  Chenevix  held  the  view,  prevalent 
amongst  Mesmer's  early  followers,  that  the  susceptibility 
to  the  influence  was  in  itself  a  symptom  of  disease. 
When  one  of  his  patients  came  to  thank  him  for  her 
cure,  he  tells  us  that,  to  prove  the  reality  of  the  cure  to 
himself,  he  mesmerised  her  for  thirty  minutes  without  effect, 
and  a  similar  attempt  on  the  following  day  was  equally 
unsuccessful. 

In  London  he  was  given  opportunities  for  practising  in  a 
military  hospital,  under  the  direction  of  Surgeon-Major 
Whymper  of  the  Coldstreams,  also  at  St.  George's  Hospital 
and  elsewhere.  In  addition  to  alleviating  disease  he  essayed 
to  give  demonstrations  of  the  effect  of  his  unexpressed  will. 
As  a  disciple  of  Faria  he  recognised  that  the  physical  sensa- 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  125 

tions  experienced  by  the  patient  were  illusory — his  article  is 
headed  "Mesmerism,  Improperly  Denominated  Animal  Mag- 
netism." He  conceived  that  these  sensations  were  produced 
by  the  will  of  the  operator  acting  directly  upon  the  nervous 
system  of  the  patient.  Thus  in  the  presence  of  Dr. 
VVhymper,  who  attests  the  facts,  he  experimented  upon  a 
soldier.  He  told  Whymper  out  of  the  patient'  s  hearing  that 
he  would  produce  in  the  hand  sensations  of  heat  and  cold  at 
will.  Six  times  in  succession  he  touched  the  hand  with  his 
silver  pencil-case,  and  each  time  the  predetermined  effect 
followed.  After  that  the  effects  became  more  uncertain — a 
result,  as  Chenevix  himself  points  out,  which  generally  follows 
if  experiments  of  the  kind  are  continued  to  the  point  of 
fatigue.  On  another  occasion  he  claims  to  have  sent  a 
patient  into  the  trance  by  operating  through  a  closed  door 
at  a  distance  of  fifteen  feet.  Dr.  Elliotson  came  on  two  or 
three  occasions  to  see  the  treatment,  and,  as  he  tells  us,  was 
much  impressed  by  seeing  Chenevix  paralyse  an  arm  or  a 
leg,  and  give  or  take  away  pain  in  any  limb,  without  saying 
anything  to  the  patient,  his  intention  being  announced  before 
hand  to  Elliotson  in  French,  a  language  of  which  the  patient 
was  ignorant. 

Amongst  those  who  witnessed  Chenevix's  performances 
were  Sir  B.  Brodie,  Drs.  Front  and  Holland,  Professor  Fara- 
day, and  Lord  Lansdowne.  Some  thought  that  the  sleep 
was  feigned,  others  that  it  was  simply  due  to  giddiness,  or 
that  it  resembled  the  sleep  induced  by  rocking  a  cradle. 
Elliotson  alone  seems  to  have  been  seriously  impressed  by 
what  he  saw.  Unfortunately,  Chenevix  died  in  the  following 
year,  and  the  subject  fell  again  into  oblivion.  Thus,  for  the 
second  time  in  the  history  of  the  science,  the  spread  of 
rational  views  on  the  subject  was  hindered  by  an  untimely 
death.^     Three  years  later  J.  C.  Colquhoun  complains  in  his 

'  See  the  articles  in  the  London  Medical  and  Physical  Journal  for 
1829,  vol.  61,  p.  219,  vol.  62,  pp.  119,  315,  "On  Mesmerism,  Improperlv 
Denominated  Animal  Magnetism."  See  also  London  Medical  and  Surgical 
Journal,  July  and  December,  1829,  p.  484,  for  an  expression  of  the 
hostile  medical  view. 


126     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

Revelnta^  that  "of  late  our  medical  men  seem  liable  to  the 
reproach  of  having  almost  entirely  neglected  the  most  im- 
portant labours  of  their  professional  brethren  upon  the 
Continent,"  i.e.,  in  connection  with  Mesmerism. 

In  1837  du  Potet,  who  had  assisted  the  second  French 
Commission  in  their  inquiry,  came  to  London,  and  was 
admitted  by  Elliotson,  at  that  time  Senior  Physician  to  Uni- 
versity College  Hosjjital,  to  practise  upon  some  patients  in  the 
hospital.  Later  Elliotson  undertook  to  practise  Mesmerism 
himself,  and  soon  succeeded  in  producing  the  somnambulic 
state. 

Elliotson  at  this  time  occupied  a  considerable  position  in 
the  medical  world.  From  its  foundation  he  had  devoted  him- 
self enthusiastically  to  University  College,  and  had  done 
much  to  assure  its  progress  in  its  early  years.  He  was  the 
founder  of  the  Phrenological  Society — then  a  more  respect- 
able study  than  now — had  been  President  of  the  Medico- 
Chirurgical  Society,  Censor  and  Lecturer  to  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Physicians.  He  had,  besides,  an  enormous  private 
practice.  He  is  described  by  a  writer  in  the  Medical  Times  ^ 
as  vigorous,  unconventional,  self-willed,  and  impetuous,  with 
the  hand,  and  something  of  the  disposition,  of  a  pugilist.  His 
attitude  towards  his  own  profession  had  never  been  concili- 
atory ;  he  had  already  made  himself  conspicuous  by  his 
impetuous  and  hitherto  successful  patronage  of  new  inven- 
tions. He  had  been  the  first  to  use  the  stethoscope  in  Eng- 
land, and  he  had  forced  upon  the  profession  many  important 
additions  to  the  materia  medica.  Such  was  the  man  who  in 
the  spring  and  summer  of  1838  gave  public  demonstrations 
of  Mesmerism  in  the  theatre  of  University  College  Hospital. 
His  colleagues  on  the  staff  held  aloof  from  the  spectacle,  but 
the  theatre  was  thronged  by  a  number  of  distinguished 
persons  from  outside.  The  principal  subjects  at  these  public 
demonstrations  were  two  young  girls,  Jane  and  Elizabeth 
Okey,   sixteen    and    seventeen    years    old    respectively,   of 

'  /sis  Revelata:  an  Inquiry  into  the  Origin,  Progress,  and  Present  Stale 
of  Animal  Magnetism  (Edinburgh,  1833). 
'  Vol.  xi.,  February  i,  1845. 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  127 

diminutive  stature  and  childish  features.  The  sisters,  as  we 
gather  from  the  report  of  a  physician  who  had  attended  them 
before  their  admission  to  University  College  Hospital/  were 
well-marked  examples  of  a  type  of  nervous  instability  much 
less  common  then  and  now  in  England  than  in  France,  where 
its  characteristic  manifestations  have  been  carefully  investi- 
gated at  the  Salpetriere  and  elsewhere.  Both  sisters  were 
epileptic,  and  so  abnormally  sensitive  to  shock  that  a  loud 
knock  at  the  door  would  sometimes  have  the  effect  of  bring- 
ing on  an  attack.  The  younger,  Jane,  had  experienced 
accesses  of  spontaneous  delirium  before  Animal  Magnetism 
had  been  used  upon  her  ;  she  had  also  fallen  occasionally  into 
a  state  of  spontaneous  catalepsy,  in  which  her  senses  were  in 
abeyance.  One  of  the  sisters,  as  we  learn  from  an  editorial 
in  the  Lancet^  had  gone  to  a  meeting  at  Irving's  Chapel,  and 
had  proceeded  to  "  speak  with  tongues  "  until  she  was  turned 
out. 

Under  the  influence  of  Animal  Magnetism,  or  "  Mes- 
merism," as  it  was  now  commonly  styled  in  this  country,  the 
sisters  exhibited  various  stages  of  dissociation  of  conscious- 
ness, all  of  them  marked  by  apparent  oblivion  on  waking. 
In  the  most  alert  state  they  showed  themselves  extremely 
lively  and  talkative,  not  seldom  witty,  and  their  behaviour  to 
all  around,  but  especially  to  Elliotson  and  his  clinical  clerk. 
Wood,  was  marked  by  impudent  familiarity.  Thus  at  one 
demonstration  the  first  object  which  caught  Elizabeth's 
attention  when  thrown  into  the  alert  state  was  the  white 
trousers  worn  by  Lord  Anglesey,  who  occupied  a  seat  in  the 
front  row.  She  immediately  went  up  to  him  and  commented 
on  them — "  Dear,  you  do  look  so  tidy,  you  do.  What  nice 
things  !  You  are  a  nice  man."  She  then  attempted  to 
snatch  the  hat  of  a  doctor  who  sat  near.  When  Elliotson 
frustrated  the  attempt  she  made  saucy  remarks  and  used 
silly  terms  of  endearment  to  him.  Jane's  conduct  was 
fashioned  on  the  same  model.  She  shocked  the  clergy  who 
were  present  by  constantly  appealing  to  the  devil ;  she 
twisted  a  handkerchief  up  in  imitation  of  a  clergyman 
'  Lancet  for  May,  1838,  p.  379. 


128     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

preaching ;  she  tried  to  tell  funny  stones  of  such  a  nature 
that  EUiotson  at  an  early  stage  found  it  necessary  to  cut 
them  short. 

Notwithstanding  his  familiarity  with  the  views  held  and 
demonstrated  by  Chenevix,  ElHotson  from  the  first  appear-^ 
to  have  been  convinced  of  the  fluidic  nature  of  the  influence, 
and  the  phenomena  shown  were  interpreted  in  accordance 
with  this  preconception.  The  patient  was  put  into  the 
trance  by  dWnking  mesmerised  water,  by  contact  with 
mesmerised  metals,  by  passes  made  from  behind  a  screen, 
which  were  presumed  to  be  made  without  her  knowledge. 
A  pile  of  mesmerised  sovereigns  would  send  her  to  slcej:), 
but  the  sleep  would  deepen  if  the  same  sovereigns  were 
presented  to  her  flat,  so  as  to  increase  the  acting  surface. 
In  the  trance  she  would  imitate  movements  of  head,  hand, 
and  mouth  made  by  EUiotson  or  Wood  behind  her  bade. 
She  would  show  herself  indifferent  to  pinches  and  pricks 
bestowed  on  her  by  the  spectators.  On  one  occasion  a 
needle  was  found  imbedded  in  Elizabeth's  arm,  and  a  small 
operation  was  necessary  for  its  extraction.  She  showed  no 
pain  at  the  time,  and  on  being  awakenctl  professed  ignorance 
of  what  had  occurred,  and  tore  off  the  bandage  to  see  what 
they  had  been  doing  to  her.  On  another  occasion,  her  arm 
having  been  carefully  bound  in  a  splint  to  prevent  possible 
injury  to  the  wrist,  she  lifted  a  weight  of  seventy  pounds  to 
a  height  of  four  inches  from  the  floor.  It  was  found  that, 
when  hungry,  she  could  detect  bread — "  see  it,"  as  she  said — 
with  the  back  of  her  left  hand.  Repeated  trials  were  made 
with  her  eyes  bandaged  and  a  cardboard  screen  held  in  front 
of  her  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  vision  impossible.  She 
never  failed  to  detect  the  bread  when  held  within  two  inches 
of  the  hand,  nor  ever  mistook  any  other  substance  for  bread. 
This  result  can  perhaps  be  attributed  to  hyper;esthesia  of  the 
skin.  She  predicted  that  a  pinch  of  tea  in  her  hand  would 
send  her  into  a  sleep  from  which  she  could  not  be  wakened  ; 
she  predicted  the  occurrence  of  headaches  ;  when  asked 
questions  which  she  was  unable  to  answer  she  would  refer 
them  to  her  "  negro,"  and  would  report  his  answers.     In  his 


m::smerism  in  England  120 

Iiospilal  practice  Elliotson  employed  Elizabeth's  clairvoyant 
powers  on  his  other  patients  ;  he  even  on  one  occasion  took 
her  into  the  men's  ward,  for  the  purpose  of  testing  her 
powers  of  prediction  on  the  sick.  On  one  bed  she  saw 
"Great  Jackey"  sitting,  and  said  that  the  man  would  not 
recover.  In  fact,  he  died  very  shortly  afterwards.  But  the 
girl's  prophecy  had  been  overheard  by  the  man  in  the  next 
bed,  if  not  by  the  patient  himself 

Elliotson's  high  standing  in  the  profession  had  sufficed  in 
the  first  instance  to  ensure  a  respectful  hearing  for  his 
theories.  But  from  the  outset  some  appear  to  have  regarded 
the  Okey  girls  as  simply  impostors.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
Medical  Society  of  London  this  opinion  was  freely  expressed ; 
but  Dr.  Hughes  Bennett,  on  the  other  side,  pointed  out  that 
the  pulse  and  the  temperature  of  the  skin  were  altered  in 
the  trance.  The  suspicion  of  fraud  had,  however,  affected 
Elliotson's  students  ;  tests  were  applied,  and  several 
"exposures"  followed,  the  results  of  which  were  communi- 
cated by  Elliotson  to  the  Lancets 

In  judging  of  these  cases  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind 
that  Elliotson  conceived  the  trance  and  its  accompanying 
manifestations  as  definite  physiological  effects  produced  in 
the  organism,  independently  of  the  patient's  imagination,  by 
a  specific  external  agent.  Obviously  the  trance  itself  and 
most,  if  not  all,  of  the  manifestations  could  be  feigned  ; 
the  proof  of  their  genuineness  lay  in  their  correspondence 
to  certain  physical  reagents.  From  this  standpoint  the 
demonstration  of  deception  in  the  cases  cited  by  Elliotson 
no  doubt  seemed  complete.  The  first  case  was  that  of  a 
girl  of  twelve  who  was  under  treatment  for  debility  of  the 
spine.  Elliotson's  account  merely  states  that  tests  were 
applied  and  the  girl's  sleep  was  found  to  be  feigned.  The 
nature  of  these  tests  we  learn  from  an  anonymous  article 
in  the  Lancet.  It  appears  that  Elizabeth  Okey  had  from 
the  first  taken  a  strong  dislike  to  the  little  patient  Charlotte 
IJentley.  She  charged  her  with  being  an  impostor,  bullied 
and  threatened  her,  and  finally  made  her  drink  "mesmerised  " 
'  July,  1838,  p.  634. 


I30     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

and  unmesmerised  water  in  turn.  Both  drinks  produced  the 
mesmeric  sleep,  and  Elizabeth  triumphantly  proclaimed  the 
girl's  imposture.  Elliotson  appears  to  have  accepted  the  test 
and  to  have  regarded  the  girl's  deception  as  proved.  By  an 
ironical  fate  Elizabeth  herself  was  to  be  tried  by  the  same 
test  a  few  weeks  later,  and  Elliotson  was  to  set  aside  the 
verdict. 

The  case  of  Anne  Ross  is  even  more  dubious.  She  was  an 
ejMleptic,  twenty-three  years  of  age.  Under  mesmeric  treat- 
ment her  fits  were  reduced  in  severity,  and  the  premonitory 
convulsive  movements  of  arms  and  legs,  which  had  previ- 
ously come  on  several  days  before  each  fit,  lasting  for  two 
or  three  hours  a  day,  almost  disappeared.  In  the  trance  she 
announced  that  an  angel  had  appeared  to  her  and  prescribed 
the  removal  of  two  teeth.  The  teeth  were  taken  out,  on  two 
separate  occasions,  without  any  sign  of  pain  on  the  part  of 
the  patient.  Nevertheless,  some  of  the  students — on  what 
grounds  does  not  appear — suspected  imposture,  and  devised 
what  seemed  to  them  a  conclusive  test  Within  hearing  of 
the  entranced  patient  they  mentioned  that  some  somnam- 
bules  would  awake  when  the  index  finger  was  pricked. 
They  then  tried  the  experiment  on  Anne  Ross,  and  she 
awoke  immediately.  On  the  following  day  the  students 
announced  in  her  hearing  that  Elizabeth  Okey  had  predicted 
that  Anne  Ross  would  roll  her  head  from  side  to  side  for 
half  a  minute  ;  that  she  would  feel  no  pain  on  one  side  of  the 
body  for  a  time,  that  subsequently  sensibility  would  be 
restored  ;  that  she  would  waken  when  her  nose  was  pinched 
and  say,  "  God  bless  my  soul ! "  and  so  on.  All  these 
suggestions  were  punctually  fulfilled.  Again,  this  time  in 
Elliotson's  presence,  the  patient,  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
students,  assumed  delirium — and  Elliotson  said  that  he  had 
never  seen  worse  acting. 

On  this  evidence  Elliotson  and  his  pupils  regarded  the 
girl's  imposture  as  proved,  and  under  pressure  she  was 
induced  to  admit  that  she  had  never  felt  more  than  a 
certain  degree  of  drowsiness  under  Mesmerism,  and  that 
all  else  was  feigned. 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  131 

For  the  modern  student  of  hypnotism,  it  need  scarcely  be 
said,  there  is  nothing  in  the  results  recorded  inconsistent 
with  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  patient.  That  a  hypnotic 
patient  should  act  promptly  on  suggestions  made  in  her 
hearing  is  what  experience  has  led  us  to  expect.  Her  very 
"  confession "  was,  in  fact,  probably  suggested  to  her  by 
Elliotson.  The  facts  that,  as  expressly  stated  by  him, 
there  had  been  marked  improvement  in  her  malady  under 
mesmeric  treatment,  and  that  she  had  given  no  signs  of 
pain  when  her  teeth  were  extracted,  furnish  some  positive 
evidence  that  her  state  was  not  feigned.  Two  other 
epileptics  at  the  same  time  were  suspected  of  trickery,  on 
what  grounds  is  not  stated,  and  were  discharged.^ 

But  an  exposure  of  a  more  disastrous  nature  was  to  follow. 
Elliotson  had  made  numerous  experiments  purporting  to 
illustrate  the  physical  nature  of  the  mesmeric  effluence. 
Gold,  silver,  platinum,  water,  and  the  moisture  of  the  skin 
were  found  to  transmit  it ;  copper,  zinc,  tin,  pewter,  &c., 
unless  wet,  were  non-conductors.  Of  the  conductors,  nickel 
and  gold  were  said  to  be  the  best ;  but  the  mesmeric 
influence  as  transmitted  by  nickel  was  of  an  extremely 
violent  and  even  dangerous  character.  Some  of  the  most 
striking  effects  were  produced  by  gold  :  thus,  if  a  sovereign, 
mesmerised  by  being  retained  in  the  operator's  hand,  were 
placed  in  the  hand  of  one  of  the  Okeys,  it  would  cause 
cramp,  either  local  or  general,  trance,  or  coma,  the  effect  being, 
it  was  alleged,  strictly  proportioned  to  the  strength  of  the 
original  dose  of  mesmeric  fluid  communicated  to  the  metal. 
Analogous  effects  were  observed  if  a  sovereign  was  placed 
successively  in  the  hands  of  several  hospital  patients  and 
thence  transferred  to  the  hand  of  the  sensitive,  the  effect 
produced  in  the  latter  varying  in  strength  with  the  state  of 
the  patient's  vitality.  If  mesmerised  sovereigns  were  placed 
in  a  pewter  vessel,  the  influence  would  be  gradually  trans- 
mitted to  the  sensitive's  hand.  In  stooping  to  pick  up  a 
mesmerised  sovereign  from  the  floor,  the  Okeys  would 
suddenly  become  cataleptic,  as  their  hands  approached  the 
'  Lancet,  1838,  pp.  546  and  634. 


132     MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

metal,  and  remain  fixed  in  a  stooping  position.  Dr.  Herbert 
Mayo,  Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology  at  King's 
College,  who  had  contributed  reports  of  Elliotson's  demon- 
strations to  the  pages  of  the  Lancet,  records '  a  still  more 
striking  experiment.  It  sufficed  for  the  mesmerist  to  gaze 
intently  at  a  stone  mantelpiece,  and  to  place  a  sovereign 
on  the  spot  where  his  gaze  had  fallen,  for  the  metal  to 
become  imbued  with  the  mesmeric  virtue,  and  to  produce 
the  characteristic  reactions  with  a  sensitive  subject. 

Again,  EUiotson  claimed  to  have  succeeded  in  mes- 
merising a  patient  by  making  passes  over  her  image 
reflected  in  a  mirror.  A  surgeon  at  Windsor  improved  on 
this  experiment.  He  placed  his  patient  in  his  study,  within 
the  focus  of  a  telescopic  lens  inserted  in  the  closed  door. 
At  the  opposite  focus  a  mirror  was  placed,  and  by  means  of 
a  second  mirror  the  rays  were  reflected  to  where  the  surgeon 
stood,  forty-six  feet  from  his  patient.  Nevertheless,  the 
mesmeric  passes  proved  effective.^ 

Further,  as  shown  in  the  experiments  with  the  Okeys 
already  mentioned,  clairvoyance,  prevision,  and  transposition 
of  sensation  were  said  to  have  been  observed  in  certain  cases. 
Thomas  Wakley,  editor  of  the  Lancet,  had  at  first,  as  we 
have  seen,  opened  his  columns  to  the  recital  of  these 
"  beautiful  phenomena,"  as  EUiotson  was  wont  to  call 
them.  But  in  the  month  of  August,  1838,  he  determined  to 
test  them  for  himself  EUiotson  brought  the  two  Okeys 
to  Wakley's  house,  and  there,  in  the  presence  of  several 
medical  men,  experiments  were  made  under  Wakley's  sole 
direction.  On  the  first  day  the  violent  contortions  and 
muscular  cramp,  which  were  the  characteristic  results  of 
contact  with  mesmerised  nickel,  were  produced  when  the 
nickel — unknown  to  EUiotson  and  most  of  the  company — 
was  safe  in  the  waistcoat  pocket  of  one  of  the  spectators. 
It  was  shown  in  a  further  series  of  experiments  that  un- 
mesmerised  water  could  produce  sleep,  whilst  water  which 
had   been   carefully   mesmerised    had   no   effect ;    and    that 

'  Lancet,  September  i,  1838. 

'  Letter  in  the  Lancet,  June,  1838,  p.  454. 


MESMERISM   IN  ENGLAND  133 

whilst  three  or  four  mesmerised  sovereigns  could  be  handled 
with  impunity,  well-marked  catalepsy  was  produced  when 
Jane  Okey  stooped  to  pick  up  a  sovereign  which  had  merely 
been  warmed  in  hot  water,  without  human  contact  at  all.^ 
Wakley  reported  these  experiments  as  a  conclusive  exposure 
of  the  pretensions  of  the  Mesmerists.  "The  science  of 
Mesmerism,"  he  writes,  "  like  the  science  of  fortune-telling, 
will  always  flourish  where  there  are  clever  girls,  philosophic 
Bohemians,  weak  women,  and  weaker  men."  2  All  his 
subsequent  utterances  betray  an  almost  personal  animus 
against  the  Mesmerists,  no  doubt  partly  due  to  the  fact 
that  he  had  allowed  his  own  journal  for  some  months  to 
be  their  chief  medium    of  communication  with   the  world. 

But  Wakley's  experiments,  of  course,  however  conclusive 
against  Elliotson's  conception  of  a  physical  agent,  did  not,  in 
fact,  prove  either  imposture  on  the  part  of  the  Okeys  or  the 
unreality  of  the  induced  trance  and  its  accompanying  psycho- 
logical phenomena. 

Meantime  Elliotson  had  become  involved  in  a  personal 
dispute  with  the  authorities  of  University  College  Hospital. 
After  the  exhibition  of  the  Okeys  in  the  hospital  theatre,  in 
June,  1838,  the  Committee  had  requested  Elliotson  to  refrain 
from  giving  further  demonstrations  of  Mesmerism.  He  still, 
however,  continued  the  practice  of  Mesmerism  in  the  wards. 
In  October,  the  question  of  retaining  Elizabeth  Okey  as  a 
patient  came,  in  the  ordinary  course,  before  the  Committee. 
Elliotson  represented  that  she  was  too  ill  to  be  discharged. 
In  the  case  of  an  ordinary  patient  such  an  expression  of 
opinion  from  the  senior  physician  would,  of  course,  have 
settled  the  matter.  But  a  nurse  reported  to  the  Committee 
the  visit  of  Elizabeth  to  the  men's  ward,  her  vision  of 
"  Great  Jackey,"  and  the  subsequent  death  of  the  patient. 
The  matter  was  referred  to  the  General  Council,  who  issued 
instructions  that  Elizabeth  Okey  was  to  be  discharged,  and 
that  the  practice  of  Mesmerism  within  the  hospital  wards 
should  be  discontinued  altogether.  On  the  resolution  being 
communicated  to  Elliotson  he  sent  in  his  resignation. 

'  Lancet,  September,  1838.  "  Ibid.,  September  15,  1838. 


134    MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

The  mixed  feelings  with  which  the  incident  was  regarded 
are  reflected  in  the  attitude  of  the  students  at  a  crowded 
meeting  held  to  consider  the  question,  Elliotson  was  very 
popular  with  the  students  on  personal  grounds.  He  was  a 
man  of  conspicuous  ability  and  originality,  an  adinirable 
lecturer  and  teacher.  The  resignation  of  such  a  man  would 
be  a  serious  loss  to  the  staff:  at  the  same  time,  it  was 
generally  felt  that  by  his  imprudence  and  extravagance  he 
had  brought  discredit  upon  the  hospital.  In  the  event  a 
resolution  was  passed  praying  the  Council  to  take  steps  to 
secure  the  withdrawal  of  the  resignation.  But  the  resolution 
came  too  late.  Some  weeks  later  Elliotson  sent  to  Hoff- 
meister,  one  of  his  old  students,  a  letter  of  thirt}'-six  pages, 
asking  him  to  communicate  it  to  his  former  class,  as  his  fare- 
well. Hoffmeister  felt  compelled  to  refuse,  on  the  ground, 
as  he  explained  to  his  fellow-students,  that  the  letter  con- 
tained so  many  reflections  on  the  character  and  conduct  of 
Elliotson's  late  colleagues. 

Elliotson's  impulsive  conduct  appears  to  have  seriously 
injured  his  private  fortunes.  His  practice  fell  off  considerably 
during  the  next  few  years.  Bnt  his  ill-considered  experi- 
ments and  extravagant  theories  had  a  still  more  prejudicial 
effect  upon  the  progress  of  Mesmerism.  Wakley's  views 
appear  to  have,  found  acceptance  with  the  profession 
generally.  His  article  is  commonly  referred  to  by  con- 
temporar)'  writers  as  the  exposure  at  once  of  the  Okeys  and 
of  the  pretensions  of  the  Mesmerists  ;  and  the  columns  of  the 
Lancet  and  other  medical  journals  were  closed  for  some  time 
to  come  against  the  partisans  of  the  new  science.  Elliotson's 
name  was  rarely  mentioned  without  a  sneer ;  and  when,  in 
1846,  it  came  to  his  turn  to  deliver  the  Harveian  Oration,  some 
of  the  medical  journals  expressed  regret  that  the  Council  had 
not  the  courage  to  pass  him  over,  or  Elliotson  himself  the 
discretion  and  good  taste  to  refuse  the  proffered  honour.' 

The  intolerance  of  the  medical  profession  from  1839 
onwards  to  Mesmerism,  and  especially  its  obstinate  rejection 
of  the  cumulative  evidence  of  the  relief  from  pain  occasionally 

'  See  the  London  Medical  Gazelle,  June  19th,  and  Lancel,  July  4,  1846. 


MESMERISM   IN   ENGLAND  135 

afforded  by  its  means  in  surgical  operations,  is  one  of  the 
most  noteworthy  episodes  in  the  history  of  medical  science, 
Wakley  cited  Anne  Ross  as  an  example  of  insensibility  to 
pain  deliberately  feigned  ;  in  this  case  Elliofson,  as  we  have 
seen,  agreed  with  him.     The  case  of  Madame  Plantin  has 
been  described  in  a  previous  chapter,^  and  there  were  English 
surgeons  at  this  date  who  did   not  scruple  to  say  that  the 
strenuous  efforts  which  she  made  to  conceal  the  pain  of  the 
operation  and  her  subsequent  remorse  for  the  deception  had 
hastened  her  death.     The  first   considerable  operation  per- 
formed in  England  in  the  mesmeric  trance  took  place  in  1842 
at  Wellow,  in  Nottinghamshire,  the  patient  being  one  James 
Wombell,  whose  leg  was   amputated   above  the  knee.     W. 
Topham,  a  London  barrister,  was  the  mesmerist,  and  the 
operation  was  performed  by  Squire  Ward,  M.R.C.S.     The 
patient  lay  motionless,  except  for  a  low  moaning  as  if  in  a 
troubled  dream  ;  the  operator  even  touched  the  severed  end 
of  the  sciatic  nerve  without  giving  rise  to  any  movement  or 
any  increase  in  the  low  moaning.     An  account  of  the  case 
was  read  before  the  London  Medico-Chirurgical  Society  at 
their   meeting    on    November    22,     1842.     The   paper   was 
received    with  much   disfavour,  many  of  the   medical    men 
present  expressing  their  opinion  that  the  alleged  insensibility 
was  simulated,  and  that  Wombell  had  been  trained  to  bear 
pain  without  betraying  any  signs  of  it.     Dr.  Marshall  Hall,  a 
noted  authority  on  the  nervous  system,  maintained  that  the 
motionless  attitude  of  the  patient  proved  too  much  ;  if  he 
had  been  simply  unconscious,  there  would  have  been  con- 
vulsive reflex  movements.     The  trial,  therefore,  proved,  not 
coma,  but  voluntary  re[:)ression  of  the  signs  of  pain.^     In  the 
interval  before  the  next  meeting  the  authors  published  the 
paper  on  their  own  account,3  and  the  Society  gladly  took 
advantage  of  this  breach  of  etiquette  to  expunge  all  notice 
of  the  discreditable  transaction  from  their  Minutes,    But  this 

*  See  above,  p.  no. 

^  Medico-Chirurgical  Review,  January  i,  1843. 

3  Account  of  a  Case  of  Successful  Amputation  of  the  Thigh  during  the 
Mesmeric  State  (London,  1843). 


136    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

was  not  enough  for  the  opponents  of  Mesmerism.  It  was 
freely  stated  by  medical  men  in  the  public  Press  and  else- 
where, whenever  the  subject  of  Mesmerism  was  under  dis- 
cussion, that  James  Wombell  had  subsequently  confessed  to 
a  wicked  deception  ;  that  he  had,  in  fact,  felt  the  whole  pain 
of  the  operation,  but  to  gain  his  private  ends  had  successfully 
concealed  his  feelings  at  the  time.  Elliotson  took  the  trouble 
in  1843  to  get  a  statement  signed  by  the  man  himself  and 
witnessed  by  the  clerg\-man  of  the  parish,  giving  the  lie  to 
the  slander.^  Eight  years  later  it  was  revived.  At  a  meet- 
ing of  the  same  Society  on  December  10,  1850,  Dr.  Marshall 
Hall  "  begged  leave  to  communicate  a  fact  of  some  interest 
to  the  Society.  .  .  .  He  understood  that  this  man  (Wombell) 
had  since  confessed  that  he  had  acted  the  part  of  an  im- 
postor," Mr.  Topham  wrote  to  ask  Dr.  Hall  for  his  authority. 
Dr.  Hall  replied,  "The  fact  .  .  .  was  communicated  to  me 
by  a  gentleman  whom  I  have  known  for  the  third  part  of  a 
century,  and  whom  I  regard  as  among  the  most  honourable 
and  truthful  of  men."  Dr.  Hall  refused  to  give  up  the  name 
of  his  informant  "  without  reserve,"  and  he  concluded  his 
letter  by  calling  upon  Mr.  Topham  to  take  note — 

"That  I  shall  never  cease  to  raise  my  voice  against  everything 
derogatory  to  my  profession,  whether  originating  unhappily  within  its 
ranks,  or  coming  intrusively  froni  without.  That  I  am  of  opinion  tiiat, 
in  tlicse  days  of  muilifarious  folly  and  quackery,  every  member  of  my 
profession  is  called  upon  in  honour  to  do  the  same. 

"That  you  will  be  pleased  to  consider  this  as  a  final  communica- 
tion." 

Dr.  Hall,  however,  wrote  to  his  informant,  asking  him  upon 
what  evidence  he  had  made  the  statement,  and  published  in 
the  Lancet,  together  with  a  copy  of  the  above-cited  letter  to 
Mr.  Topham,  the  following  extract  from  his  still  unnamed 
correspondent's  reply — 

"The  confession  of  the  man  was  distinctly  and  deliberately  stated 
to  mc  by  a  person  in  whom  I  have  full  confidence.  It  was  in  Notting- 
hamshire that  I  was  told  the  fact,  last  August,  and  I  fully  believe  it." 


Zohi,  vol.  i.  p.  210. 


MESMERISM   IN   ENGLAND  13; 

Dr.  Marshall  Hall  had,  perhaps,  heard  in  his  youth  that  a 
statement  could  be  established  in  the  mouths  of  two  or  three 
witnesses,  and  may  have  thought  that  he  was  fulfilling  the 
Scripture  by  multiplying  the  links  in  his  chain  of  anonymous 
tradition.  The  evidence,  in  fact,  seems  to  have  been  good 
enough  for  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Society,  for  at  a  later 
meeting  the  president  refused  to  hear  Dr.  Ashburner  and  Dr. 
Cohen  when  they  rose  to  refute  the  slander  ;  and  the  Lancet 
and  other  papers,  in  reporting  the  incident,  expressed  approval 
of  the  chairman's  firmness  and  impartiality.^ 

Two  years  later,  in  August,  1844,  another  amputation  of 
the  leg  was  performed  in  the  mesmeric  trance.  The  patient 
this  time  was  a  young  woman,  the  complaint  fungus  hematodes 
of  the  knee.  The  patient  professed,  when  awakened  after  the 
operation,  to  have  felt  no  pain.  A  doctor  had  been  specially 
delegated  to  note  the  patient's  movements  and  other 
symptoms.  He  records  "  low  moaning,  slight  movements  of 
sound  leg  and  toes ;  leg  once  contracted  ;  movements  of 
limbs  and  eyelids  (quivering)."  In  this  case,  it  will  be  seen. 
Dr.  Marshall  Hall's  requirements  were  fulfilled — there  were 
reflex  movements.  But  one  or  two  of  the  surgeons  present 
refused  to  believe  in  the  patient's  insensibility  precisely 
because  of  these  slight  movements.^ 

The  attempt,  however,  to  produce  suggestional  anaesthesia 
sufficiently  deep  and  prolonged  for  such  severe  operations 
appears  to  have  been  rarely  successful  in  England.  Braid 
could  not  point  to  a  single  case  in  his  own  practice,  though 
he  would,  no  doubt,  have  employed  it  in  some  cases  if  he 
could  have  done  so.  A  demonstration  on  a  large  scale  was, 
however,  shortly  afforded  in  India.  James  Esdaile  was  a 
young  surgeon  who,  in  1845,  was  in  charge  of  a  hospital  for 
poor  persons  and  criminals  at  Hooghly.  In  April  of  that 
year  he  began  to  make  experiments  on  the  natives  under  his 
charge,  and  soon  found  himself  able  to  induce  coma  so  pro- 
found that  in  some  cases  the  pupils  failed  to  contract  when 

'  Lancet,  December  28,   1850,  and  March  i,   1851.     See  also  Zohi, 
vol.ix.  pp.  88,  106,  where  a  full  account  of  the  incident  is  given. 
'  Medical  Times,  vol.  x.  pp.  491,  510,  September,  1844. 


138     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

exposed  to  the  light  of  an  Indian  sun  at  noonday.  Esdaile, 
like  ElUotson,  was  prepossessed  with  the  conception  of  a 
physical  effluence,  and  remained  under  the  domination  of 
this  idea  until  the  end  of  his  life  ;  and  his  demonstrations, 
like  Elliotson's,  were  devised  to  illustrate  the  workings  of  this 
subtle  agency.  He  invited  Finch,  the  editor  of  the  India 
Journal  of  Medical  Science,  and  two  other  doctors  to  experi- 
ment for  themselves  on  some  of  his  patients.  Esdaile  sug- 
gested the  use  of  mesmerised  water,  passes  through  a  stone 
wall,  and  so  on.  The  visitors  accepted  his  suggestions,  but 
substituted  plain  water  and  refrained  from  making  any  passes 
at  all.  The  predicted  results  nevertheless  followed,  and 
Finch,  at  any  rate,  was  convinced  that  the  whole  question 
was  one  of  "incredible  credulity"  on  the  one  side,  "gross 
imposture"  on  the  other.  Esdaile,  however,  continued  to 
practise  Mesmerism  for  curative  purposes  and  performed 
under  its  influence  numerous  severe  operations.  Some  of 
the  visitors  who  were  allowed  to  witness  these  operations 
thought  there  might  be  something  in  it,  and  the  Government 
of  Bengal  in  1846  appointed  a  committee,  consisting  of  the 
Inspector-General  of  Hospitals,  three  other  medical  men,  and 
three  civilians,  to  inquire  into  the  matter.  Six  patients  were 
finally  selected,  on  whom  Esdaile  performed  severe  operations 
(extirpation  of  huge  tumours,  hydrocele,  &c.)  in  what  purported 
to  be  a  state  of  mesmeric  coma.  The  patients  all  asserted 
that  they  had  felt  no  pain  under  operations  which  certainly 
in  the  normal  state  would  have  involved  severe  suffering. 
The  Committee  reported  that  three  showed  no  signs  of  pain 
during  the  operation,  and  made  no  movements  of  any  kind. 
In  the  other  three  cases,  convulsive  movements  of  the  arms 
were  observed,  writhing  of  the  body,  and  distortion  of  the 
features,  giving  the  face  a  hideous  expression  of  suppressed 
agony — all  the  signs,  in  fact,  of  intense  pain.  The  report 
was  entirely  non-committal.  The  Committee  contented 
themselves  with  contrasting  the  signs  of  pain  in  three  of  the 
cases  with  the  positive  statements  of  the  patients  that  they 
felt  no  pain.  But  they  expressed  the  opinion  that,  owing  to 
the  length  of  time  required  to  produce  a  coma  of  sufficient 


MESMERISM    IN    ENGLAND  139 

intensity,  and  the  uncertainty  of  success,  Mesmerism  would 
in  any  event  prove  of  little  practical  utility. 

It  is  significant  that  the  Committee  made  no  comment  on 
the  very  remarkable  pulse-records  of  the  six  patients.  The 
table  given  in  the  Report  is  as  follows : — 


Immediately  before  Operation. 

During  Operation. 

Immediately  after  Operation. 

I 

72 

72 

Natural. 

2 

60 

60 

» 

3 

68 

68 

» 

4 

84 

124 

t» 

5 

108 

112 

100 

6 

68 

108 

72 

The  three  patients  in  whom  the  pulse  remained  wholly 
unaffected  were  the  three  who  betrayed  all  the  signs  of  severe 
pain  ;  in  the  three  men  who  remained  absolutely  motionless 
the  pulse  rose,  in  two  cases  to  an  enormous  extent.  The 
Committee  were  apparently  unable  to  explain  this  curious 
difference,  but  Braid,  who  comments  on  the  report  in  the 
Medical  Times,^  was  able  from  his  own  experience  to  supply 
the  explanation.  There  is  no  proof,  he  points  out,  that  either 
set  of  patients  felt  any  pain.  In  the  first  three  cases  the  con- 
vulsive movements  were  the  reflex  actions  which  would,  as 
Marshall  Hall  had  already  pointed  out,  naturally  be  expected 
to  occur.  The  pulse  remained  normal  because  there  was 
nothing  to  disturb  it.  In  the  other  three  cases  all  reflex 
action  was  inhibited,  because  the  whole  body  was  in  a  state 
of  rigid  catalepsy.  The  same  condition,  by  increasing  the 
resistance,  would  account  for  the  acceleration  in  the  pulse- 
beat. 

The  Governor  of  Bengal  did  not,  however,  adopt  the 
Committee's  sceptical  attitude.  In  acknowledging  the  receipt 
of  the  report  his  secretary  wrote  that  "the  possibility  of 
making  the  most  severe  surgical  operations  painless  to  the 
subject  of  them  is  in  his  Honour's  opinion  established." 
Esdaile  was  forthwith  appointed  to  a  small  hospital  in  Cal- 
cutta. The  hospital  was  to  be  under  his  exclusive  control  for 
a  year,  and  he  was  to  make  what  experiments  he  would. 
'  Vol.  XV.  February  13,  1847,  p.  381 ;  vol.  xvi.  p.  10. 


140     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Medical  men  appointed  by  the  Government  would  visit  and 
inspect  his  operations. 

At  the  end  of  the  experimental  year  Lord  Dalhousie 
appointed  Esdaile  a  Presidency  surgeon,  and  he  continued 
his  practice  for  eighteen  months  longer  in  a  Mesmeric 
Hospital  opened  by  public  subscription. 

During  Esdaile's  six  years'  practice  in  India  he  performed, 
on  patients  rendered  insensible  by  the  operation  of  Mesmerism, 
no  fewer  than  261  serious  operations,  besides  a  large  number 
of  minor  cases.  Of  the  serious  operations  two  hundred 
consisted  in  the  removal  of  scrotal  tumours  varying  from 
10  lbs.  to  103  lbs.  in  weight.  In  these  two  hundred  cases  there 
were  only  sixteen  deaths,  though  the  mortality  from  the 
removal  of  similar  tumours  had  previously  been  40  or  50  per 
cent.  There  were  besides  several  cases  of  amputations, 
removal  of  cancerous  and  other  tumours,  &c. 

Esdaile  was  a  man  of  private  means.  It  need  scarcely  be 
said  that  he  added  little  to  his  fortune  by  devoting  himself  to 
curing  the  ailments  of  native  criminals  and  paupers.  To  the 
unprofessional  mind  it  would  seem  that  such  a  man  merited 
at  least  the  thanks  of  his  profession  for  good  work  done. 
What  reward  he  received  is  foreshadowed  by  a  remark  of 
Dr.  Duncan  Stewart,  one  of  the  official  visitors  to  the 
Mesmeric  Hospital.  Commenting  on  the  recent  discovery  of 
anaesthetic  drugs,  he  exclaimed  :  "  It  is  time  to  throw  away 
mummery  and  work  above-board,  now  that  we  have  got 
ether."  In  fact,  the  medical  Press  in  India  severely  boycotted 
Esdaile  and  his  operations,  and  to  the  last  persisted  in  re- 
garding all  his  patients  as  deliberate  impostors.  Nor  was  he 
more  successful  in  obtaining  a  hearing  on  his  return  to  his 
native  country.  He  tells  us  that,  being  invited  by  Professor 
Simpson  of  Edinburgh  to  contribute  some  account  of  his 
experiences  to  an  English  medical  journal,  he  prepared  two 
separate  papers,  and  that  the  editor  made  excuses  for  not 
publishing  either.^ 

•  Introduction  of  Mesmerism  into  India  (Preface).  In  this  pamphlet 
Esdaile  gives  a  number  of  curious  examples  of  the  abuse  lavished  on 
Mesmerism  and  its  practitioners  by  the  medical  Press  of  the  day. 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  141 

In  1849  the  Earl  of  Ducie,  a  Lord-in- Waiting  to  her 
Majesty  and  a  strict  Presbyterian,  had  taken  the  chair  at  the 
opening  meeting  of  the  Bristol  Mesmeric  Institute,  and  had 
publicly  testified  to  the  beneficial  effects  of  Mesmerism.  He 
had  himself,  he  said,  been  treated  for  an  attack  of  gout  by  its 
means,  and  had  "experienced  very  great  relief";  further,  he 
had  seen  many  extraordinary  cures  and  a  number  of  cases  in 
which  persons  were  readily  relieved  of  intense  pain  and 
suffering.^ 

The  Medical  Gazette  of  July  6,  1849,  in  an  editorial  com- 
menting on  the  report,  wrote  :  "  We  are  inclined  to  think  that 
the  affair  is  a  hoax  from  beginning  to  end,  and  that  the  con- 
coctor  of  the  so-called  report  has  been  guilty  of  a  species  of 
'  mental  travelling,'  by  no  means  uncommon  amongst  enthusi- 
astic advocates  of  particular  doctrines."  The  Gazette  went  on 
to  point  out  that  Lord  Ducie,  since  his  asserted  cure  by 
Mesmerism  two  years  previously,  had  consulted  orthodox 
physicians,  "and  that  this  statement  of  the  cure  of  gout 
by  Mesmerism,  which  has  been  falsely  attributed  to  him, 
reflects  undeservedly  upon  the  non-mesmeric  portion  of  the 
medical  profession,"  and  also  upon  Lord  Ducie's  own 
reputation  for  common-sense. 

The  article  was  obviously  written  by  a  man  too  well 
assured  beforehand  of  the  sympathies  of  his  readers  to  be 
careful  to  regard  the  decencies  of  controversy,  or  even  to 
observe  common  honesty.  The  writer  admits  that  he  had 
seen  two  reports,  in  one  of  which  it  was  stated  that  Lord 
Ducie  had  "  experienced  very  great  relief,"  in  the  other  that 
he  had  been  "  cured."  The  statement  in  the  first  report,  that 
he  had  experienced  relief,  was  of  course  not  inconsistent  with 
Lord  Ducie's  subsequent  resort  to  orthodox  practitioners  for 
further  treatment  of  an  obstinate  complaint,  and  would  have 
afforded  no  basis  for  the  outrageous  insinuations  made  by  the 
editor  of  the  Gazette.  Now,  the  first  report,  which  originally 
appeared  in  the  Bristol  Mercury,  and  was  quoted  at  full 
length  in  the  Zoist,  was  practically  verbatim.  But  the  writer 
in  the  Gazette  chose  deliberately,  or  perhaps  rather  blindly,  a 
'  Zohl,  vol.  vii.  153. 


142     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

greatly  abbreviated  report  which  was  on  the  face  of  it  there- 
fore likely  to  be  less  correct,  in  order  that  he  might  gratify  the 
odium  vicdicnm.  By  assuming  the  correctness  of  the  abbreviated 
report  he  was  able  safely  to  make  offensive  reflections  not 
only  on  the  humbler  persons  concerned,  but  upon  Lord  Ducie 
himself,  whom  he  would  not  have  ventured  to  attack  directly. 

In  the  following  number  there  appeared  a  letter  from  Lord 
Ducie  affirming  the  accuracy  of  the  report  that  he  had 
experienced  very  great  relief. 

The  editor  prints  this  letter  without  apology  of  any  kind. 
In  fact,  he  makes  his  original  offence  worse  than  before  by  a 
bitter  and  unscrupulous  attack  upon  other  speakers  at  the 
meeting,  comparing  their  remarks  about  clairvoyance  and 
prevision  to  the  ravings  of  an  unhappy  religious  maniac 
whose  case  had  lately  been  decided  by  the  courts. 

But  the  editorial  conduct  appears  to  have  commended 
itself  to  at  least  one  other  member  of  the  profession.  For  an 
anonymous  physician  sent  the  whole  correspondence  to  the 
Moruiug  Post,  asking  that  paper,  "  for  the  credit  of  the  ortho- 
dox profession,  to  make  the  case  known."  The  Morning  Post, 
however,  in  printing  the  physician's  letter,  took  the  view  that 
the  whole  affair  was  by  no  means  "  to  the  credit  of  the  ortho- 
dox profession."  The  editor  of  the  Gazette  had  made  a  mis- 
statement;  when  the  misstatement  was  pointed  out  to  him 
"  he  refuses  to  retract  or  apologise,  but  endeavours  to  justify 
a  line  of  conduct  which  is  obviously  unjustifiable.  We  deeply 
lament  the  spirit  in  which  such  disputes  are  conducted." » 

It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply  instances.  The  above 
examples  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  sentiments,  so  far  as 
they  were  articulate,  of  the  bulk  of  the  profession  towards 
Mesmerism  in  the  decade  1840-50.  After  Elliotson's  resigna- 
tion in  1838,  indeed,  there  seemed  some  danger  of  the  interest 
in  the  subject  dying  out  altogether.  It  was  revived  in  1841 
by  the  visit  of  another  Frenchman,  La  Fontaine,  who  came  to 
this  country  on  a  lecturing  tour.  It  is  to  his  lectures  and 
demonstrations  that  many  of  the  writers  on  Mesmerism  at 
this  time,  including  Braid  himself,  owed  their  impulse  to 
'  Morning  Post,  August  8,  1849. 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  143 

investigate.  In  1843  there  appeared  the  first  number  of  the 
Zoistydi  quarterly  periodical  which  continued  under  Elliotson's 
direction  until  1856.  The  Zoist  was  the  organ  of  the  medical 
Mesmerists.  In  the  same  year  there  appeared  another 
periodical,  the  Phreiio- Magnet,  edited  by  Spencer  T.  Hall, 
which  represented  the  popular  side  of  the  movement.  Neither 
Hall  nor  his  contributors  had  serious  claims  to  scientific 
knowledge,  and  the  Phreno-Magnet  gave  hospitality  to  many 
facts  and  speculations,  emanating  chiefly  from  America,  even 
more  extravagant  and  astounding  than  those  for  which 
Elliotson  and  his  colleagues  were  responsible. 

Again  in  the  same  year  appeared  Braid's  Neurypnology. 
^  Braid  was  a  Manchester  surgeon,  who,  having  tried  mesmeric 
treatment  on  his  own  patients;  satisfied  himself  that  the 
observed  phenomena  were  in  all  cases  subjective,  due  to  an 
influence  exerted  by  the  nervous  system  of  the  patient  on  his 
own  organism.  He  pointed  out  that  the  sleep  or  trance  into 
which  the  "  mesmerised "  subject  fell,  though  it  had  some 
analogy  with  ordinary  sleep,  differed  from  it  by  the  nature  of 
its  reaction  to  external  stimuli.  For  this  peculiar  psychological 
condition  he  proposed  the  name  Neuro- Hypnotism,  later 
altered  into  Hypnotism,  the  name  now  generally  adopted. 

Such  were  the  different  mental  forces  at  work  upon  the 
subject  in  the  decade  under  consideration.  If  we  consider 
more  closely  the  nature  of  the  phenomena  alleged  to  occur, 
we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  understand  the  sharp  contrast 
between  the  three  attitudes — that  of  contemptuous  rejection, 
of  implicit  belief,  and  of  discriminating  acceptance,  typified 
by  the  Lancet,  by  Elliotson,  and  by  Braid  respectively.  In 
the  first  place  the  bulk  of  the  medical  profession,  so  far  at 
least  as  they  gave  public  expression  to  their  views,  were 
obsessed  by  the  idea  of  fraud  as  the  explanation  of  the 
phenomena.  The  Mesmerists  and  their  subjects  are  alike 
referred  to  as  impostors  in  the  current  medical  literature.^ 

'  "We  cannot  publish  any  more  papers  on  the  subject  of  such  an 
odious  fraud  as  Mesmerism."  Lancet,  1848,  quoted  by  Esdaile  {Intro- 
iliiction  of  Mesmerism  into  India).     Or  again  : — 

"  Dr.  F need  be  under  no  apprehension  of  an  attack  in  the 


144    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

In  explanation  of  this  attitude  it  should  be  pointed  out,  in 
the  first  place,  that  of  the  characteristic  features  ordinarily 
presented  in  the  induced  trance  there  is  none  which  it  is  not 
within  the  power  of  the  subject  to  produce  deliberately.  It 
hi  true  that  in  certain  cases  there  are  alterations  in  the  pulse 
rate  such  as  are  beyond  the  conscious  control  of  the  subject  ; 
or,  again,  reflex  action  may  be  inhibited.  But  phenomena  of 
this  kind  are  not  reproducible  in  every  case,  and  cannot  be 
relied  upon  as  tests.  Esdailc,  though  he  assures  us  that  he 
witnessed  instances  of  the  insensibility  of  the  pupils  to  a 
strong  light  in  some  of  his  earliest  patients,  was  not  able  to 
exhibit  any  case  before  Dr.  Finch  and  his  colleagues  in  1845. 
Insensibility  to  pain,  within  certain  limits,  can,  no  doubt,  be 
feigned,  and  it  is  to  be  observed  that  in  P.ngland  cases 
of  extreme  insensibility  were  apparently  of  quite  rare  occur- 
rence. The  psychological  phenomena  in  such  a  case  as  that 
of  the  Okeys  would  almost  inevitably  suggest  imposture. 
Indeed,  in  hysterical  cases  it  is  even  now  almost  impossible 
to  distinguish  between  the  effects  of  deliberate  simulation 
and  those  of  unconscious  suggestion.  For  "  both  in  spon- 
taneous and  artificially  induced  hysteria  and  somnambulism 
there  is  frequently  a  super-added  deceit — which  is  a  moral 
sN'mptom  of  the  disease  itself,  and  not  an  indication  that  all 
is  imposture.' 

For  proof  of  the  reality  of  the  mesmeric  influence  Elliot- 
son  and  his  colleagues  relied  partly  on  the  beneficial  effect  of 
the  treatment  in  cases  of  disease.  But,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
case  of  the  Commission  of  1784,  such  a  test  is  difficult  of 
application  and  little  calculated  to  convince.  The  partisan  of 
1840  was  ultimately  driven  back,  like  his  predecessors  sixty 
j'ears  before,  on  the  asserted  physical  effects  as  the  supreme 
test  of  the  reality  of  the  influence.  The  whole  subject  of 
Reichenbach's  phenomena  and  of  influence  at  a  distance  will 

Mesmeric  Magazine  affecting  him  in  the  opinion  of  the  profession. 
That  journal  only  finds  circulation  among  the  class  of  impostors  who 
record  their  doings  in  it"  {London  Medical  Gazette,  April  12,   1843). 

•  British  and  Foreign  Medical  Review,  April,  1845,  article  on 
Mesmerism. 


MESMERISM   IN   ENGLAND  145 

be  dealt  with  in  a  later  chapter.  For  our  present  purpose  it 
is  enough  to  point  out  that,  whatever  the  explanation  of  the 
matter,  it  is  certain  that  the  sensations  described  by  the  sensi- 
tives which  were  held  to  attest  the  influence  of  the  fluid 
could  be  produced  in  the  absence  of  the  supposed  material 
cause  by  merely  exciting  the  imagination,  and  frequently 
failed  to  appear  when  the  material  cause  was  actually  present 
unknown  to  the  sensitive. 

To  the  dubious  physical  effects  of  the  hypothetical  fluid 
the  Mesmerists  generally  added  the  not  less  dubious  "  higher 
phenomena" — community  of  sensation,  clairvoyance  of  the 
human  body,  prevision,  vision  with  closed  eyes,  travelling 
clairvoyance.  ElHotson,  indeed,  exercised  a  certain  reserve 
in  his  utterances  on  these  subjects  ;  it  was  not  until  1844 
that  he  admitted  himself  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  travelling 
clairvoyance  ;  even  after  this  date  he  seems  to  have  been 
more  alive  than  most  of  his  colleagues  and  disciples  to  the 
possibilities  of  deception.^ 

But  most  of  the  writers  on  Mesmerism  at  this  date  seem  to 
have  accepted  the  higher  phenomena  unreservedly.  A  con- 
spicuous demonstration  both  of  vision  with  closed  eyes  and 
of  clairvoyance  at  a  distance  was  afforded  in  the  years  1844 
and  1845  by  two  young  Frenchmen,  Alexis  and  Adolphe 
Didier.  The  performances  of  the  former,  in  particular, 
reached  the  height  of  achievement  in  this  direction  and 
excited  extraordinary  interest,  chiefly  in  fashionable  circles. 
Some  account  of  the  wonders  described  will  be  given  in 
Chapter  IX.  below. 

Of  the  nature  of  the  phenomena  of  "  prevision"  and  "  intro- 
vision "  enough  has  already  been  said.  The  exhibitions  of 
vision  with  closed  eyes  by  Alexis  Didier  and  other  per- 
formers in  no  case  furnish  clear  evidence  of  a  new  faculty. 
Cases  of  "  travelling  clairvoyance "  were  almost  always 
open  to  suspicion  ;  moreover,  they  were  of  comparatively 
rare  occurrence,  and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  testing 
them  were  almost  insuperable.  Weighted  as  it  was  by  these 
dubious  phenomena  and  extravagant  theories,  it  is  not 
'  See  the  Valedictory  Address  in  the  Zoist,  vol.  xiii.  p.  443. 


146    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

altogether  surprising  that  Mesmerism  found  small  acceptance 
in  medical  circles  at  this  period.  Elliotson  to  the  last 
remained  an  Ishmael  in  his  profession.  His  combative 
nature  would  not  admit  of  compromise  or  condescend  to  any 
methods  of  conciliation.  The  abuse  and  contempt  with 
which  his  doctrines  were  treated  by  the  medical  Press  in 
general  he  repaid  in  kind.  His  hostile  critics  were  assailed 
in  the  Zoist  with  such  phrases  as  "laughable  folly,"  "dis- 
creditable conduct,"  "untruthfulness,"  "stupid  obstinacy," 
"slobbering  childishness." 

Braid,  as  already  said,  whilst  imputing  all  the  alleged 
physical  effects  of  the  fluid  to  imagination,  and  disregarding 
or  explaining  away  the  "  higher  piienomena,"  attached  con- 
siderable importance  to  the  psychological  condition  revealed 
by  the  mesmeric  procedure— a  condition  hitherto  scarcely 
recognised  by  the  profession.  From  1842  onwards  he 
employed  Mesmerism,  or,  as  he  preferred  to  name  it, 
'  Hypnotism,"  in  his  own  practice  with  beneficial  results. 
He  found  it  invaluable  in  procuring  sleep,  in  beneficially 
stimulating  the  organic  functions,  and  in  relieving  pain. 
Among  the  more  striking  cases  which  he  enumerates  in  his 
Neurypuology  are  the  cure  or  marked  alleviation  of  long- 
standing nervous  headaches,  neuralgia,  tic  doloureux,  func- 
tional paralyses  of  various  kinds,  weakness  of  spine  and 
impaired  sensibility,  rheumatism,  epilepsy,  palpitation  of  the 
heart,  cases  of  tonic  muscular  spasm,  improvement  of  sight, 
so  that  persons  who  had  worn  spectacles  for  years  were  able 
to  do  without  them,  the  absorption  in  one  case  of  opacity  of 
the  cornea,  the  improvement  of  hearing  so  that  deaf-mutes 
were  in  some  cases  able  to  hear  words  addressed  to  them, 
restoration  of  the  sense  of  smell,  the  cure  of  skin  diseases 
such  as  eczema  and  impetigo,  and  many  minor  ailments. 

The  columns  of  the  Lancet  were  closed  to  Braid  equally 
with  Elliotson.  But  he  found  ready  hospitality  in  the 
Medical  Tivies — the  Lancets  chief  rival.  The  sobriety  of  his 
views,  his  clear  and  convincing  expositions,  gradually  won 
some  measure  of  recognition  in  the  scientific  press.  The 
first  and  only  edition  of  his  book  Neurypuology  was  soon 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  147 

exhausted  ;  his  later  writings  appear  to  have  met  with  some 
success  ;  his  work  is  referred  to  with  respect  by  such  men  as 
Carpenter,  Hughes  Bennett,  Holland,  and  Brewster. 

In  contrast  it  is  curious  to  note  that  Elliotson  showed  him- 
self as  bitterly  hostile  to  Braid  as  to  those  of  his  critics  who 
rejected  the  mesmeric  treatment  altogether.  Elliotson's 
nature  was  intolerant  of  any  difference  of  opinion.  He 
deeply  resented  Braid's  criticism  of  the  mesmeric  theory, 
and  his  demonstrations  of  the  subjective  nature  of  many 
mesmeric  phenomena.  Braid's  writings  are  almost  com- 
pletely ignored  in  the  Zoist.  In  the  whole  thirteen  volumes 
his  name  is  mentioned  only  two  or  three  times,  and  then  only 
to  compare  his  "  coarse  method  "  with  the  old-established 
methods  of  Mesmerism,  or  to  claim  credit  for  the  mesmeric 
cure  of  a  case  in  which  hypnotism  was  asserted  to  have 
failed.i 

The  period  which  we  are  now  considering  was,  it  must  be 
admitted,  peculiarly  unfavourable  for  the  introduction  of 
Mesmerism  and  its  phenomena.  In  India,  notwithstanding 
the  bitter  incredulity  of  the  profession  generally,  it  can 
scarcely  be  doubted  that  Esdaile's  brilliant  demonstrations  of 
painless  surgery,  if  only  on  native  patients,  must  ultimately, 
if  an  untoward  fate  had  not  intervened,  have  compelled  recog- 
nition. It  happened,  however,  at  the  very  time  when  Esdaile 
was  conducting  his  Mesmeric  Hospital  under  Government 
auspices,  that  the  use  of  ether  and  chloroform  was  rapidly 
spreading  amongst  the  profession.  Whatever  advantages 
Esdaile's  method  possessed,  in  its  safety  and  freedom  from 
unfavourable  after-symptoms,  were  in  actual  practice  out- 
weighed by  the  convenience  and  certainty  of  the  results 
obtained  by  the  use  of  anaesthetic  drugs.  To  produce 
anaesthesia  sufficiently  deep  for  the  performance  of  a  capital 

*  Zoi%i,  vol.  iii.  p.  345.  See  also  Braid's  reply  in  the  Medical  Times, 
vol.  xi.  p.  99,  October,  1845.  Other  incidental  references  to  Braid  in  the 
Zoist  will  be  found  in  vol.  ix.  p.  316  and  vol.  xi.  pp.  391,  395.  In  the 
former  reference  a  pamphlet  of  Braid's  is  cited  with  other  titles  of 
books  at  the  head  of  a  review,  but  the  reviewer  cannot  bring  himself 
to  mention  Braid's  name  in  the  course  of  the  article. 


148     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

operation  the  patient  under  Esdaile's  system  required  to  be 
treated  for  several  days  in  succession,  and  even  then  a  cough 
or  any  nervous  idiosyncrasy  of  the  patient  might  interfere 
with  success.  The  most  striking  test  of  the  genuineness  of 
the  mesmeric  state  was,  therefore,  not  disproved  but  robbed 
of  its  interest  and  practical  value  by  a  purely  extraneous 
circumstance. 

In  England  there  was  a  growing  feeling  amongst  the  more 
open-minded  of  the  profession  that  Mesmerism  had  not  had 
a  fair  trial.  This  feeling  found  expression,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  in  Braid's  work,  and  in  the  attitude  of  many  who 
followed  Braid's  demonstrations  with  an  interest  which  was 
not,  however,  sufficiently  energetic  to  induce  them  to  follow 
his  example  by  employing  the  new  method  in  their  practice. 
So  early  as  1845  the  British  and  Foreign  Medical  Review 
expressed  the  opinion  that  the  subject  "  had  hardly  received 
fair  play  at  the  hands  of  many  of  our  professional  brethren." 
In  particular  the  reviewer  deprecated  the  rancorous  incre- 
dulity with  which  the  demonstrations  of  mesmeric  anaesthesia 
had  been  received.  It  was  much  easier,  he  pointed  out,  in 
such  cases  to  believe  in  the  reality  of  the  patient's  insensi- 
bility than  to  suppose  that  men  of  honourable  standing  in 
their  profession,  with  every  motive  for  closely  guarding  their 
own  reputations,  should  again  and  again  have  been  deceived. 
In  1 85 1  the  Mesmerists  found  some  new  allies.  There  came 
to  England  in  that  year  from  America  a  number  of  lecturers 
who  gave  platform  demonstrations  of  the  new  science  of 
Electro-biology.  Electro-biology  was  Mesmerism  under 
another  name.  The  subject  was  thrown  into  the  hypnotic 
state,  generally  by  gazing  at  a  disk,  and  was  then  made  to 
carry  out  suggestions  of  the  operator  of  the  kind  with  which 
popular  lecturers  on  Mesmerism  have  in  recent  years  made 
us  familiar.  When  the  subjects  drank  salt  water  in  the  belief 
that  it  was  champagne,  dandled  a  baby  extemporised  out  of 
a  handkerchief,  and  otherwise  made  fools  of  themselves 
before  an  audience  composed  of  their  fellow-townsfolk,  it  was 
obvious  to  all  that  the  results  were  due,  not  to  a  thauma- 
turgic  fluid,  but  to  the  operation  of  the  subject's  own  imagina- 


MESMERISM    IN   ENGLAND  149 

tion.  It  was  also  obvious  to  unprejudiced  observers  that 
the  feats  were  genuine,  in  the  sense  that  the  actions  of  the 
"electro-biologised"  persons  were  for  the  time  beyond  their 
voluntary  control. ^ 

These  platform  performances  drew  renewed  attention  to  the 
subject.  Hughes  Bennett,^  Carpenter,3  Sir  David  Brewster,4 
and  others  wrote  or  lectured  on  the  demonstration  of  the 
power  of  the  mind  over  the  body,  and  there  seemed  some 
chance  that  the  importance  of  the  induced  trance  and  the 
suggestion  phenomena,  alike  to  psychology  and  to  thera- 
peutics, might  at  length  be  recognised.  But  the  influence  of 
some  evil  star — the  metaphor  seems  inevitable  in  treating  of 
Mesmer's  cosmic  conception — again  prevailed.  The  doctrine 
and  practices  of  the  Mesmerists  had  originally  suffered  some 
prejudice  because  of  Elliotson's  personal  opinions.  Apart 
from  his  intemperate  methods  of  advocacy,  he  was  known  as 
a  free-spoken  and  intolerant  opponent  of  all  religious  beliefs. 
The  dubious  science  of  phrenology,  with  which  his  name 
was  prominently  associated  before  he  began  to  champion 
Mesmerism,  connoted  with  him  a  rather  crude  materialism. 
All  mental  phenomena  were  in  his  view  "  produced  "  by  the 
brain,  much  as  bile  is  produced  by  the  liver  ;  he  was  con- 
stantly deprecating  the  useless  belief  in  the  immortality  "  of  a 
certain  thing  called  soul  and  immaterial."  s  Other  men  of 
the  same  way  of  thinking,  such  as  H.  G.  Atkinson,  the 
"Mentor"  of  Miss  Martineau,  found  in  Mesmerism  and  its 
parasitic  science  of  Mesmero-phrenology  fresh  weapons  with 

'  Not  all  were  willing,  however,  to  admit  so  much.  See  the  grotesque 
address  on  Darlingism  misnamed  Electro-biology  (Dr.  Darling  was  one  of 
the  chief  lecturers  on  the  subject)  delivered  before  the  Medico- 
Chirurgical  Society  of  Glasgow  by  Dr.  Buchanan  in  1851.  Dr. 
Buchanan  attributed  the  results  presented  partly  to  want  of  moral 
principle,  partly  to  weakness  of  intellect  on  the  part  of  the  subjects. 

»  The  Mesmeric  Mania  of  1851,  a  lecture  by  J.  Hughes  Bennett. 

3  Mental  Physiology. 

*  Lecture  before  the  Philosophical  Institution  of  Edinburgh,  1851.  See 
also  the  British  and  Foreign  Medico-Chirurgical  Reinew,  October,  1851, 
p.  431  :  "The  phenomena  are  destined  to  lay  the  foundations  for  a 
complete  revolution  in  metaphysics  and  mental  philosophy." 

s  Zoist,  vol.  iii.  pp.  423,  424. 

^      9F  THE 


ISO    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

which  to  do  battle  for  their  views.  But  from  1853  onwards 
Mesmerism  was  menaced  by  a  danger  of  an  opposite  kino. 
When  table-turning  and  spirit-rapping  were  introduced  into 
this  country  from  America,  the  Mesmerists  soon  identified 
the  mysterious  force  which  caused  the  phenomena  with  the 
mesmeric  or  neuro-vital  fluid.^  A  little  later,  when  the 
trance  and  its  manifestations  were  exploited  in  the  interests 
of  the  new  gospel  of  Spiritualism,  many  of  the  English 
Mesmerists,  who  had  been  prepared  by  the  utterances  of 
their  own  clairvoyants  for  some  such  devel(r)ment,  proclaimed 
themselves  adherents  of  the  new  faith.  Klliotson  himself 
before  his  death  became  a  convert  to  Spiritualism.^  The 
Mesmerists  generally  found  the  marvels  of  the  magnetic 
fluid  insignificant  in  face  of  the  new  revelation.  Mesmeric 
operators  became  spiritual  healers,  and  their  subjects  trance 
mediums ;  the  spiritualist  platforms  were  thronged  with 
magnetic  clairvoyants  who  had  developed  into  "  inspira- 
tional" speakers.  The  two  movements  naturally  became 
identified  in  the  minds  of  the  public,  and  shared  in  a  common 
condemnation.  No  physician  who  valued  his  professional 
reputation  could  afford  to  meddle  with  the  subject,  and  the 
study  of  the  induced  trance  and  its  attendant  phenomena  was 
relegated  to  oblivion,  in  these  islands  at  any  rate,  for  more 
than  a  generation. 

'  See  the  articles  on  the  subject  in  the  Zoisi,  especially  vols.  xi. 
and  xii. 

'  The  process  of  conversion  in  his  case  did  not  stop  at  this  point. 
He  died  a  Christian.  See  his  obituary  notice  in  the  Morning  Post, 
August  3,  1868. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  FLUIDIC  THEORY 

Fluid  or  fraud :  no  room  found  for  the  intermediate  views  of 
Bertrand  and  Braid — Alleged  proofs  of  Magnetic  fluid — Reichenbach's 
experiments :  his  unscientific  temper  :  his  subjects  probably  uncon- 
sciously "educated" — Braid's  counter-experiments — His  demonstra- 
tions completely  ignored  by  Reichenbach  and  the  Mesmerists — 
Braid's  own  demonstrations  in  Phreno-mesmerism  possibly  due  to 
thought-transference — Thought-transference  a  possible  explanation  of 
induction  of  trance  or  sleep  at  a  distance  :  experiipents  by  Townshend, 
and  later  experiments  by  Janet  and  Gibert. 

OUR  survey  of  the  history  of  Animal  Magnetism, 
or,  as  its  later  disciples  in  this  country  preferred  to 
style  it.  Mesmerism,  is  now  complete.  After  1850 
the  movement  gradually  disappears  from  view.  But  Mes- 
merism died,  so  to  speak,  only  to  become  the  fruitful  mother 
of  children,  some  of  them  more  vigorous  and  likely  to  be 
more  long-lived  than  their  parent.  For  the  best  part  of  a 
generation,  indeed,  we  hear  little  more  of  its  employment  in 
therapeutics.!  Treatment  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  Braid 
had,  however,  been  pursued  at  Nancy  by  Liebeault  since  i860, 
and  in  the  early  eighties,  as  a  result  largely  of  his  example, 
we  find  it  employed  in  the  Civil  Hospital  at  Nancy  by 
Bernheim,  at  the  Salpetriere  under  Charcot,  and  at  different 
centres  in  Germany  and  the  Scandinavian  countries.  In  this 
country  it  first  received  official  recognition  in  1893  from  a 
committee  of  the  British  Medical  Association,  which  reported 

'  The  Zoist  continued  until  the  end  of  1856.     But   the  interest  in 
the  subject  in  England  was  waning,  and,  as  already  indicated,  many 
champions  of  Mesmerism  had  become  Spiritualists. 
151 


152     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

that  they  had  satisfied  themselves  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
hypnotic  state  and  of  the  value  of  hypnotism,  within  limits, 
in  relieving  pain  and  alleviating  functional  ailments.  The 
subject  has  now,  under  the  name  of  Hypnotism  or  Suggestion, 
obtained  a  definite,  if  still  somewhat  precarious,  foothold  in 
the  medical  practice  of  every  civilised  country,  and  is  recog- 
nised as  an  indispensable  auxiliary  in  the  new  science  of 
experimental  psychology. 

But  Hypnotism  is  only  the  youngest  and  at  present  by  no 
means  the  most  prominent  of  the  progeny  of  Mesmer.  All 
the  mysticisms  and  pseudo-sciences  of  the  present  day,  no 
doubt,  owe  something  to  the  Viennese  doctor.  There  are, 
however,  three  distinct  schools  of  thought,  each  claiming  a 
scientific  foundation,  whose  descent  may  be  traced  directly 
back  to  that  universal  system  of  knowledge  whose  boast  it 
was  to  unite  two  well-known  sciences — Astronomy  and 
Medicine.  The  three  faiths  in  question  are  the  fluidic 
theory,  which  finds  its  headquarters,  appropriately  enough, 
in  modern  Paris ;  the  religion  of  modern  Spiritualism  ;  and 
the  movement  of  Mental  Healing,  of  which  the  sect  known 
as  Christian  Scientists  are  the  most  prominent  representatives. 

The  remaining  chapters  of  this  book  will  be  devoted  to 
tracing  the  connection  between  these  modern  phases  of 
thought  and  the  movement  whose  rise  and  culmination  have 
been  already  sketched.  In  the  evolution  of  life  on  this  planet 
there  has  been,  we  are  told,  a  constant  tendency  to  the  exter- 
mination of  intermediate  types.  Woe  to  the  unhappy 
animal  or  vegetable  which  attempts  to  occupy  the  vacant 
space  between  opposing  armies  !  In  the  battle  of  life  there 
is  no  mercy  for  the  Laodicean.  A  like  tendency  is  manifest 
in  the  evolution  of  opinion.  Even  the  progress  of  science 
is  frequently  attained  by  a  kind  of  dichotomy ;  any  novel 
current  of  opinion  appears  by  a  kind  of  psychological 
induction  to  create  a  current  of  at  least  equal  intensity  in 
the  reverse  direction.  We  may  trace  this  tendency  in  the 
history  of  most  recent  sciences.  In  geology,  for  instance,  we 
have  witnessed  successively  the  vulcanists  and  the  neptunists, 
the  catastrophists  and  uniformitarians,  each  party  seeing  one 


THE    FLUIDIC   THEORY  153 

aspect  of  the  truth,  and  ignoring  that  seen  by  its  opponents. 
This  extinction  of  intermediate  types  is  clearly  seen  in  our 
own  political  history.  Where  is  now  the  Fourth  Party? 
Where  in  a  few  months  or  years  will  be  the  Liberal  Unionists  ? 
Does  not  Nature  itself  abhor  a  Mugwump  ? 

The  history  of  Mesmerism  well  illustrates  this  law  of 
evolution.  On  the  one  side,  alike  in  France  and  in  England, 
generation  after  generation,  stood  those  who  had  seen  things 
new  and  marvellous,  and  believed  ;  on  the  other  stood  those 
who,  for  the  most  part  not  having  seen,  disbelieved.  The  one 
party  talked  only  of  fraud,  the  other  only  of  fluids.  In  each 
case  the  opinion  was  held  in  face  of  reason  and  facts  until  it 
became  a  veritable  obsession.  Between  the  two  opposing 
camps  stood  in  France  Alexander  Bertrand,  in  England 
James  Braid.  Their  fates,  as  we  have  seen,  ran  parallel  up  to 
a  certain  point.  Neither  stirred  enthusiasm,  neither  found 
followers  nor  created  a  school ;  neither,  indeed,  appears  to 
have  exercised  much  influence  on  his  contemporaries,  or  to 
have  had  any  effect  at  all  on  the  extremists  on  either  side. 
But  Braid  enjoyed  a  longer  life  than  the  young  Parisian  : 
his  books,  even  in  his  lifetime,  found  a  select  public,  and 
it  is  matter  of  history  that  the  revival  of  interest  in  the 
subject  on  the  Continent  some  years  after  his  death  was 
stimulated  by  his  writings. 

It  is  tempting  to  speculate  on  what  might  have  happened 
in  this  country  if,  say,  Elliotson  on  the  one  side  and  Wakley 
on  the  other  had  condescended  to  learn  from  Braid.  However 
mischievous  at  the  time  the  credulity  and  extravagance  of  the 
Mesmerists  must  have  appeared,  in  the  light  of  subsequent 
happenings  the  persistent  and  unreasonable  imputation  of 
imposture  must  seem  now  more  mischievous  still.  Viewed  as 
a  reaction  from  the  other  side,  the  attitude  of  the  medical 
world  was  not,  perhaps,  altogether  unreasonable.  Elliotson, 
in  the  intemperance  of  his  language  and  the  extravagance  of 
his  conduct,  was  like  a  man  intoxicated.  His  co-disciples 
joined  with  him  in  rejecting  or  ignoring  the  plainest  proofs, 
not  necessarily  of  imposture,  but  certainly  of  mistake,  and  the 
whole  subject  was  redolent  of  delusion  and  hysteria.     Fraud, 


154     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

no  doubt,  played  a  part,  it  may  be  a  considerable  part,  in  the 
business.  But  the  fraud  was  itself  a  factor  in  the  problem  to 
be  investigated.  Some  of  the  cures  were  attested  by  men  of 
established  reputation.  The  parrot  cry  of  imposture  was 
scarcely  convincing  in  the  case  of  the  Okeys  and  Anne 
Ross  ;  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  it  becomes  more  ludicrous 
when  applied  to  M.  Cloquet's  patient,  to  poor  Wombell,  to  the 
hundreds  of  Indians  who  bore  without  complaining  prolonged 
and  severe  operations  at  the  hands  of  Esdaile,  or  to  the  men 
and  women  of  good  education  and  social  position  who,  as  in 
the  case  of  many  of  Reichenbach's  sensitives,  testified  to  the 
phenomena  in  their  own  persons. 

The  deliberate  negligence  of  the  scientific  world  left  the 
whole  field  to  be  cultivated  by  the  visionary  and  the  charlatan. 
The  abundant  crop  of  false  beliefs  and  extravagant  systems 
which  flourish  at  the  present  time  is  the  direct  result  of  the 
apathy  or  obstinate  incredulity  shown  by  the  physicians  of 
two  generations  ago.  The  positive  loss  to  psychology  and  to 
medical  science  itself  in  all  the  intervening  years  is  probably 
greater  still.  But  all  this  was,  no  doubt,  inevitable,  partly 
because  of  the  personality  of  the  protagonists,  but  mainly 
from  the  general  circumstances  of  the  time. 

Of  the  three  derivative  systems  above  referred  to,  the 
persistent  belief  in  fluidic  emanations  from  the  human  body, 
magnets,  metals,  drugs,  and  other  substances,  though  the 
least  important  in  its  range  and  immediate  influence,  is  not 
the  least  interesting,  nor  likely,  perhaps,  to  be  the  least 
enduring.  At  the  period  which  we  are  now  considering,  the 
decade  from  1840  to  1850,  the  belief  rested  mainly  on  three 
classes  of  facts — what  may  be  roughly  classed  as  "Reichenbach 
phenomena,"  the  manifestations  of  phreno-mesmerism.and  the 
alleged  action  at  a  distance  of  one  human  body  on  another, 
chiefly  demonstrated  in  the  provocation  of  sleep  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  subject. 

Many  illustrations  have  been  given  in  the  preceding  pages 
of  results  supposed  to  attest  the  operation  of  a  physical 
effluence  from  the  mesmerist.  Wakley's  experiments  were 
sufficient  to  show  that  the  physiological  phenomena  mani- 


THE   FLUIDIC   THEORY  155 

fested  by  the  sensitive  had  no  objective  validity.  Since  the 
alleged  sensations,  sleep,  &c.,  occurred  indifferently  when  the 
hypothetical  cause  was  actually  present,  and  when  it  was  only 
supposed  by  the  sensitive  to  be  present,  it  seems  clear  that 
they  were  not  due  to  any  uniform  external  cause,  but  were 
self-engendered.  Wakley's  conclusion,  however,  that  the 
results  were  due  to  deliberate  fraud,  was  scarcely  more 
justifiable  than  Elliotson's,  that  they  testified  to  a  physical 
effluence.  In  most  cases  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  operator 
unwittingly  by  his  manner  and  gesture  gave  sufficient  indication 
to  the  abnormally  susceptible  subject  of  the  result  expected. 
There  are,  indeed,  a  few  cases  recorded  in  which  the  experi- 
ment was  so  devised  that  the  operator  was  as  ignorant  as  the 
patient.  One  out  of  several  glasses  of  water  would  be  mes- 
merised whilst  he  was  out  of  the  room,  or  a  marked  sovereign 
after  being  mesmerised  would  be  thrown  into  a  hat  and 
shaken  up  with  several  others.^  When  the  experiment 
succeeded  under  these  conditions  the  simplest  explanation  is 
to  suppose  that  the  subject  detected  the  mesmerised  object, 
in  the  case  of  the  metal  by  means  of  the  difference  in  tempera- 
ture, in  the  case  of  the  water  by  the  smell.  Braid  states  that 
he  had  satisfied  himself  that  some  hypnotics  could  detect  by 
this  means  a  glass  of  "mesmerised"  water — i.e^  a  glass  of 
water  over  which  passes  had  been  made ;  and  we  have  seen 
already,  in  the  case  of  the  Okeys,  that  the  back  of  the  hand 
was  apparently  sufficiently  sensitive  to  differences  in  tempera- 
ture to  detect  the  presence  of  a  piece  of  bread  two  inches  off. 
We  know  that  certain  hypnotic  or  hystero-epileptic  subjects 
manifest  extraordinary  acuteness  of  the  special  senses ;  and 
we  have  not  yet  learnt  the  limits  of  hypersesthesia. 

Another  marvel  recorded  frequently  by  the  Mesmerists  of 
this  date  is  perhaps  susceptible  of  a  similar  explanation — the 
fixation  of  a  subject  by  mesmerising  his  seat  or  a  part  of  the 
floor  over  which  he  must  pass.  Mr.  Parsons,  of  Brighton, 
mesmerised  the  sill  of  the  doorway  leading  to  the  cellar,  and 
thus  prevented  his  sensitive  from  going  downstairs  and  raiding 
the  larder.2     Esdaile  made  similar  experiments  on  his  patients 

'  See,  e.g.,  Zoist,  vol.  iv.  p.  109,  v.  p.  127.     '  Ibid.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  335,  359. 


IS6     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

in  Calcutta.  His  first  experiment  of  the  kind  was  as  follows  : 
Seating  himself  in  an  armchair,  he  placed  his  hands  on  the 
end  of  the  arms  and  breathed  on  them.  He  then  sent  for  a 
patient  from  the  hospital,  who  was  placed  in  the  same  chair, 
and  questioned  by  some  of  the  medical  visitors  on  a  recent 
operation.  On  being  bidden  to  depart,  he  placed  his  hands 
on  the  knobs  at  the  ends  of  the  arms  to  assist  him  to  rise,  and 
found  himself  unable  to  remove  them.  His  hands  and  both 
arms  up  to  the  shoulder  were  in  a  state  of  rigid  catalepsy. 
Esdaile  released  him  by  upward  passes  and  then,  leaving  the 
room,  made  passes  on  the  floor  just  outside  the  door.  When 
the  man  crossed  the  spot  he  became  violently  convulsed,  and 
called  on  Esdaile  for  hclp.^ 

In  the  second  trial  it  is  not  difficult  to  suppose  that  the 
man's  sharpened  sense  was  subconsciously  aware  of  Esdaile's 
movements  in  the  passage.  The  startling  success  of  the 
first  trial,  with  the  chair,  is,  no  doubt,  not  so  easy  to  explain. 
But  it  seems  practically  impossible  in  an  experiment  of  this 
kind,  where  some  of  those  present  are  hoping,  or  at  least 
anticipating,  a  particular  movement  on  the  part  of  the  subject, 
to  be  satisfied  that  no  hint  of  the  result  expected  could  be 
conveyed,  by  look,  gesture,  tone  of  voice,  or  even  change  of 
breathing,  to  the  abnormally  acute  senses  of  the  patient. 
Sixty  years  ago  neither  party  was  sufficiently  alive  to  the 
importance  of  these  subconscious  indications. 

In  1845  the  theory  of  a  physical  effluence  received  strong 
confirmation  from  the  classical  researches  of  Baron  von 
Reicb.enbach — a  man  of  some  scientific  attainments,  a  chemist 
and  metallurgist  of  repute,  and  the  first  living  authority  on 
meteorites.2  Reichenbach  conducted  elaborate  experiments, 
extending  over  several  years,  with  a  very  large  number  of 
persons.     His  first  subjects  were  young  women  of  the  class 


«  Natural  and  Mesmeric  Clairvoyance,  pp.  126,  127. 

•  An  abstract  of  Reichcnbachs  researches  was  published  in  this 
country  in  1846  by  William  Gregory,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh.  In  1850  Gregory  published  <*  full  transla- 
tion of  the  work,  under  the  litie  Researches  on  Magnetism,  Elcctriiity  .  ,  , 
in  their  Relations  to  the  Vital  Force, 


THE   FLUIDIC   THEORY  157 

of  spontaneous  cataleptics  and  somnambulists.  Afterwards 
he  found  sensitive  persons  amongst  the  ranks  of  his  own 
acquaintance  and  many  other  persons,  both  men  and  women, 
of  good  social  position  and  apparently  sound  health.  To 
give  a  full  account  of  the  extraordinary  phenomena  attested 
by  these  persons  would  not  be  worth  the  labour.  Briefly, 
flames  of  different  colours  were  seen  to  issue  from  magnets, 
crystals,  and  the  human  body.  Metals  and  other  chemical 
substances  shone  to  the  eyes  of  the  sensitive  with  a  dull  glow, 
each  having  its  appropriate  colour.  Copper  showed  a  red 
glow,  with  a  green  flame  playing  on  it ;  silver  a  white  glow ; 
lead  and  cobalt  gleamed  blue ;  rhodium,  osmium,  and  mer- 
cury red;  chromium  green;  and  sulphur  blue.  Further,  from 
magnets,  metals,  crystals,  from  the  planets  and  the  fixed 
stars,  proceeded  emanations  which  produced  on  the  sensitive 
feelings  of  heat  or  cold,  sensations  pleasurable  or  disagree- 
able. Different  persons  showed  different  degrees  of  suscepti- 
bility to  these  emanations ;  but  it  was  claimed  that,  apart 
from  the  discrepancies  due  to  this  cause,  the  results  were 
practically  uniform.  The  new  force,  for  which  Reichenbach 
proposed  the  name  Od,  produced  no  chemical,  thermal, 
electric,  or  magnetic  effect  on  any  of  the  materials  employed 
to  test  it.  The  magnet  had  so  strong  an  attraction  on  the 
hand  of  the  sensitive  that  the  hand  would  follow  its  move- 
ments, and  adhere  to  it  as  firmly  as  a  piece  of  iron  would 
have  done.  But  the  same  hand  exercised  no  effect  what- 
ever upon  the  magnetic  needle,  and  when  a  large  horseshoe 
magnet  was  placed  in  a  balance,  though  the  patient's  hand 
was  attracted  as  strongly  as  ever,  the  balance  remained  un- 
affected. It  is  clear  that  the  effect  produced  in  this  case  was 
not  therefore  physical,  but  psychological.^  The  control  ex- 
periments which  Reichenbach  records  are  vitiated  by  the 
fact  that   he   knew   the  position  and   nature   of  the  object 

'  Reichenbach  claimed,  indeed,  that  the  magnet  influenced  the  photo- 
graphic plate,  but  the  claim  was  made  on  the  strength  of  two  experi- 
ments only,  which  he  appears  never  to  have  repeated.  In  view  of  the 
numerous  sources  of  error  in  such  experiments  the  results,  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  point  out,  are  not  conclusive. 


158     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

to    be    tested,   and    that    he   himself   questioned    the   sen- 
sitive.^ 

In  short,  the  only  proof  of  the  existence  of  the  hypotheti- 
cal fluid  lay  in  the  concordant  testimony  of  so  many  witnesses 
of  repute.  But  by  reading  between  the  lines  we  can  sec  how 
the  marvellous  agreement  between  the  different  sensitives, 
upon  which  Reichenbach  la/s  so  much  stress,  gradually  came 
to  be.  In  the  first  instance,  in  the  absence  of  a  clear  lead, 
the  sensations  described  are  ambiguous  and  indeterminate. 
The  earliest  sensitives  saw  the  magnetic  light  as  a  white 
flame,  with  occasional  flashes  of  colour.  Gradually  the 
flames  at  the  several  poles  became  differentiated,  as  the 
subjects  learnt  how  to  see.  So  the  sensations  first  experi- 
enced from  metals  or  salts  held  in  the  hand  are  described 
as  warmth,  with  a  cool  aura.  "  The  less  sensitive  persons," 
remarks  Reichenbach,  "are  at  first  more  or  less  uncertain  in 
their  statements  "  (p.  170).  Mdlle.  Sturmaim  was  "  not  always 
clear  in  her  distinction  between  tepid  and  cool  sensations  " 
(p.  50).  When  blindfolded  the  subject  was  always  liable  to 
give  uncertain  answers  (p.  40).  In  fact,  the  subjects  had  to 
be  gradually  educated  into  uniformity.  There  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  this  process  of  education  was  deliberate  on 
either  side ;  it  is  precisely  in  that  circumstance  that  the  chief 
fallacy  lies.  The  sensitive  unconsciously  took  the  hints, 
which  Reichenbach  unconsciously  gave  by  leading  questions, 
by  the  tone  of  his  voice,  and  so  on.  Occasionally  he  indi- 
cates how  apparent  discrepancies  in  the  statements  of  his 
sensitives  could  be  explained  away.  He  warns  experimenters 
who  wish  to  repeat  the  tests  with  chemical  substances  that 
they  should  be  reduced  to  powder;  but  the  powder  must  not 
be  used  for  some  hours — lest  the  influence  of  the  pestle  and 
mortar  should  persist,  or  the  electricity  generated  by  the 
friction  should  mask  the  results.  The  temperature  of  all 
substances  compared  must  be  uniform;  the  substance  must 
not    have   been    in   the    neighbourhood   of    other   powerful 

'  There  is  one  exception,  on  pp.  17, 18  of  Gregory's  translation,  where 
the  lens  was  shifted  by  Reichenbach's  assistant.  But  the  results  are 
only  given  in  general  terms. 


THE   FLUIDIC   THEORY  159 

chemicals,  nor  have  been  exposed  to  sunshine  or  moonh'ght, 
or  held  long  in  the  hand.^  If  all  these  rules  were  followed, 
and  the  results  were  still  not  in  accordance  with  expectation, 
it  was  always  open  to  suppose  that  the  sensitiveness  of  the 
percipient,  owing  to  some  variation  in  health,  had  for  the 
moment  deserted  her.  With  so  many  plausible  reasons  to 
account  for  failure,  it  seems  hardly  possible  not  to  achieve 
uniformity. 2 

In  1846,  on  the  appearance  of  Gregory's  condensed  trans- 
lation of  the  first  part  of  Reichenbach's  researches.  Braid 
instituted  some  counter  experiments  of  his  own,3  showing 
that  the  imagination,  even  in  a  healthy  person,  was  quite 
competent  under  suitable  guidance  to  produce  all  the  results 
attested  by  the  Austrian  savant.  Thus  Braid  operated  on  a 
young  man  by  drawing  his  gold  pencil-case  along  the  palm 

»  P.  181. 

'  It  becomes  clear,  on  a  careful  analysis  of  his  work,  that,  notwith- 
standing his  famiharity  with  the  materials  of  chemistry  and  electricity, 
and  the  ostentation  of  scientific  accuracy  shown  in  his  Hst  of  chemical 
substances,  and  his  tables  of  the  diurnal  variations  of  the  odylic  force 
in  the  human  body,  and  all  the  rest  of  his  elaborate  data,  Reichenbach 
was  not  of  a  scientific  habit  of  mind ;  he  was  willing  to  slur  over  dis- 
crepancies ;  he  did  not  reaHse  the  fallacies  implied  in  his  methods ;  he 
was  unable  to  appreciate  the  real  bearing  of  some  of  the  results  which 
he  records.  Above  all,  he  did  not  possess  that  rare,  but  to  a  student  of 
science  indispensable,  quality,  the  intellectual  candour  which  would 
have  enabled  him  to  profit  by  the  criticism  of  others.  It  is  probable 
that  he  started  with  an  open  mind,  but  soon  became  intoxicated  with 
his  ov/n  success  as  a  pioneer  in  a  new  field  of  scientific  discovery ;  he 
was  hardened  and  confirmed  in  this  attitude  by  the  rancorous  abuse 
which  his  original  publications  met  with  in  the  German-speaking 
countries,  and  by  the  gratuitous  insults  offered  to  the  character  of  his 
subjects.  He  ended  as  a  blind  partisan — a  partisan  so  blind  and  so 
perverse  that,  though  four  years  had  elapsed  since  the  pubhcation  of 
Braid's  courteous  and  temperate  criticisms,  Reichenbach  in  the  later 
edition  of  his  work  makes  no  mention  of  Braid's  name  or  his  theories, 
and  has  not  even  devised  a  single  counter  experiment.  It  is  this  wilful 
ignorance  on  his  own  part,  not  the  spiteful  abuse  of  German  critics, 
which  discredits  Reichenbach's  researches  and  damns  his  reputation. 

3  His  account  of  these  experiments  originally  appeared  in  the 
Medical  Times,  vol.  xiv.,  and  was  afterwards  republished  as  a  separate 
pamphlet,  under  the  title  The  Power  of  the  Mind  over  the  Body  (London, 
1846). 


i6o    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

of  the  hand.  The  subject  experienced  a  sensation  of  prick- 
ing and  a  distinct  aura,  just  as  any  of  Reichenbach's  sensi- 
tives would  have  done.  On  reversing  the  direction  of  the 
pencil  the  aura  and  the  other  sensations  were  changed  in 
character.  Braid  then  asked  the  patient  to  turn  his  head 
aside  during  the  further  progress  of  the  experiment.  He  did 
so,  and  again  felt  the  aura  and  the  pricking  sensation.  But 
Braid  this  time  had  done  nothing ;  the  gold  pencil-case 
remained  in  his  waistcoat  pocket.  Braid  then  explained 
to  his  subject  the  nature  of  the  experiment,  and  told  him 
that  he  could  himself  provoke  similar  sensations  in  the  upper 
part  of  his  foot,  by  merely  concentrating  attention  on  that 
part.  The  patient  obeyed,  and  to  his  astonishment  suc- 
ceeded, though  at  the  cost  of  a  severe  headache.  Braid 
made  other  patients,  men  and  women,  experience  sensations 
of  cold,  attraction,  and  muscular  cramp  from  the  passes  of  a 
magnet,  and  found  precisely  similar  results  to  follow  when 
the  magnet  was  present  only  to  their  imagination.  His  sub- 
jects saw  flames  issuing  from  a  magnet  in  the  dark,  and 
continued  to  see  them  when  the  magnet  was  no  longer 
there ;  others,  when  told  what  to  expect,  saw  flames  of 
varying  colour  issuing  from  the  bare  walls  of  a  dark  closet. 
An  "  eminent  physician  "  and  mesmerist  demonstrated  to 
Braid  the  wonderful  power  of  a  magnet  in  inducing  catalepsy 
in  an  entranced  patient  by  mere  contact  with  the  surface  of 
the  skin.  Braid  replied  that  he  had  in  his  possession  an 
instrument  endowed  with  still  more  marvellous  powers.  He 
placed  this  instrument  in  the  patient's  hand,  and  it  produced 
catalepsy  of  both  hands  and  arms ;  he  reversed  the  position 
of  the  instrument,  and  the  patient's  hand  opened.  A  single 
touch  of  the  instrument  caused  any  of  the  subject's  limbs  to 
rise  and  become  stiffened ;  a  second  touch  caused  it  to  lose 
its  rigidity  and  fall.  Placed  on  the  third  finger  of  the  left 
hand,  it  produced  sleep.  Removed  and  placed  on  the  second 
finger  of  the  same  hand,  it  rendered  the  patient  proof  against 
all  the  mesmerist's  endeavours  to  send  her  to  sleep.  Each 
of  these  results  had  been  predicted  by  Braid  within  the 
hearing  of  the  patient ;  the  instrument  by  which  this  modern 


THE   FLUIDIC   THEORY  i6i 

magician  secured  obedience  to  his  commands  was  nothing 
more  than  his  portmanteau  key  and  the  ring  on  which  it  was 
suspended. 

Braid's  main  conclusion,  that  the  phenomena  described  by 
Reichenbach  were  subjective — i.e.,  that  they  were  of  the  nature 
not  of  authentic  sense-perceptions,  but  of  hallucinations — 
would  probably  not  be  disputed  by  any  competent  in- 
quirer. His  further  conclusion,  that  they  were  dependent 
solely  on  the  imagination  of  the  percipient,  guided  by  sug- 
gestions given  unconsciously  by  the  experimenter,  however 
probable  in  itself,  does,  no  doubt,  go  beyond  the  warrant 
of  the  facts.  So  it  appeared,  in  1851,  to  a  writer  in  the 
North  British  Review.  Braid's  experiments,  he  points  out, 
are  no  doubt  sound  and  relevant ;  but  they  do  not  for  all 
that  necessarily  overthrow  Reichenbach's  main  thesis. 

The  reviewer  suggests  that  there  are  forces,  of  which  the 
magnetic  force  is  the  best  known,  which,  though  they  pro- 
duce no  appreciable  effect  on  ordinary  men  or  women,  can 
influence  the  nervous  system  of  exceptionally  sensitive 
persons. 

"The  wondrous  and  incalculable  inward  stir  that  is  ceaselessly 
going  on  within  the  body  of  the  so-called  animal  magnet  excites  an 
inward  stir  within  the  substance  of  the  exceptional  nerve,  and  that  stir 
bodies  itself  forth  through  the  said  exceptional  nerve  to  the  percipient 
owner  as  a  cool  aura,  a  warm  breeze,  a  luminous  flame,  a  thread  of 
light  or  phosphorescent  vapour  or  what  not." 

In  short,  odyle  is  "  a  nerve-stirring  resultant  of  the  general 
cosmical  powers  of  nature,"  and  Reichenbach  has  established 
the  proposition  "  that  the  whole  of  Nature  is  reactive  on  the 
nervous  system  of  man,  on  a  breadth  of  basis  which  cannot 
be  shaken." 

The  reviewer's  conjecture  was  of  course  opposed  to  the 
better  opinion  in  science  sixty  years  ago,  and  the  progress  of 
research  has  confirmed  the  verdict  of  the  majority.  Endea- 
vours have  from  time  to  time  been  made  to  substantiate  the 
phenomena  alleged  by  Reichenbach,  but  the  results  have 
been  invariably  negative  or  inconclusive.     It  is,  no  doubt, 


i62     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

wonderful,  as  Lord  Kelvin  has  said.^  that  the  magnetic  force 
which  acts  so  powerfully  on  many  other  substances  should 
have  absolutely  no  perceptible  effect  upon  the  human  body  ; 
but  such  appears  to  be  the  case.  The  ordinary  man  is  not 
conscious  of  any  unusual  sensation  when  his  head  is  placed 
between  the  poles  of  the  most  powerful  electro-magnet,  and 
it  still  remains  to  be  proved  that  any  rays  proceed  from  it 
visible  in  the  most  profound  darkness  to  the  most  sensitive 
eyes.2 

But  the  demonstrations  of  Wakley  and  Braid  had  no 
effect  upon  the  Fluidists  of  their  day.  Braid's  criticism  of 
Reichenbach's  results,  with  an  account  of  his  counter  experi- 
ments, appeared  in  1846  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Medical 
l^imes,  afterwards  reprinted  in  a  small  volume.  The  Power  of 
the  Mind  over  the  Body.  It  is  inconceivable  that  Gregory 
can  have  been  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  this  work.  Yet 
in  his  Preface  to  the  translation  of  1850  he  writes:  "  Up  to 
this  time  I  have  not  become  acquainted  with  any  scientific 
criticism,  published  in  this  country,  on  the  author's  researches, 
which  requires  any  notice  from  me  in  this  place  " ;  and  in 
dealing  at  some  length  with  objectors  and  objections  he  does 
not  refer  either  to  Braid  or  to  his  theory  that  the  results 
were  due  to  suggestion  and  expectant  attention.  Reichen- 
bach  himself,  as  we  have  seen,  completely  ignored  Braid's 
criticisms. 

Again,  writing  as  late  as  1856,  Esdaile  stated  : — 

•'  I  am  convinced  that  Mesmerism  as  practised  by  me  is  a  physical 
power  exerted  by  one  animal  on  another  .  .  .  and  I   should  as  soon 


'  See  his  address  on  the  Six  Gateways  of  Knowledge,  in  Nature, 
March  6,  1884. 

'  For  some  recent  experiments  to  test  Reichenbach's  phenomena 
see  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  i.  p.  230,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  56,  and  Free.  American 
S.P.R.,  p.  116.  The  results  were  in  all  cases  negative  or  inconclusive. 
Some  experiments  have  recently  been  conducted  in  Amsterdam,  for 
which  positive  results  are  claimed  ;  but  until  full  details  are  published 
it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  significance  of  the  results  (see  Dreimo- 
natlicher  Bericht  des  Psycho-physischen  Laboratoriums  zu  Amsterdam, 
1907,  No.  3). 


THE   FLUIDIC   THEORY  163 

adopt  the  diabolical  theory  as  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem, 
as  attempt  to  account  for  what  I  have  seen  and  done  by  the  action  of 
the  imagination  alone."  ' 

That  the  repetition  ad  nauseam  of  demonstrations  similar 
to  those  of  Braid  still  leaves  it  possible  for  men  of  scientific 
training  at  the  present  day  to  believe  in  the  action  at  a 
distance  of  drugs  and  magnets  upon  the  human  body,  in 
nerve  atmospheres,  in  radiant  emanations  which  can  be  seen 
only  by  persons  of  Gallic  or  Celtic  blood,^  and  the  like,  is  in 
itself  a  phenomenon  which  calls  for  consideration. 

That  the  phenomena  are  only  perceptible  to  certain  persons 
is  admitted.  Neither  by  Reichenbach  nor  by  any  subsequent 
experimenter  has  satisfactory  proof  ever  been  adduced  of 
the  power  of  the  alleged  emanations  to  affect  a  galvanometer 
or  a  photographic  plate  or  to  produce  any  other  objective 
result.  No  adequate  control  experiments  to  prove  that  the 
phenomena  are  independent  of  the  percipient's  imagination 
have  ever  been  published.  And  yet  the  belief  persists  even 
in  some  scientific  circles,  and  from  time  to  time  breaks  out  in 
new  directions. 

The  strange  vitality  of  the  belief  would  be  explained  if 
we  could  suppose  that,  to  adopt  the  phraseology  of  the 
Scottish  reviewer,  there  is  in  certain  cases  "  an  inward  stir 
within  the  substance  of  the  exceptional  nerve,"  and  that  this 
stir  corresponds  not  to  the  supposed  vibrations  from  crystal  or 
magnet,  but  to  the  far  subtler  and  more  elusive  molecular  dis- 
turbance in  the  nervous  system  of  the  experimenter.  Of 
course,  if  the  demonstrations  had  been  conducted  under  rigid 
test  conditions,  and  if  adequate  control  experiments  had  ever 
been  instituted,  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  test  this  hypo- 
thesis. In  the  absence  of  such  control  experiments  the 
suggested  action  of  thought-transference  must  remain  purely 
conjectural. 

'  Introduction  of  Mesmerism  into  India  (edition  of  1856). 

*  A  concise  history  of  the  alleged  discovery  of  the  n  rays  will  be 
found  in  Mrs.  Sidgwick's  Presidential  Address  to  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  {Proc,  xxii.  p.  12).  The  belief  in  n  rays  has  now 
apparently  suffered  euthanasia. 


i64    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

But  there  are  other  experiments  recorded  in  the  decade 
184Q-1850  which  seem  more  obviously  to  call  for  some  such 
explanation.  The  stimulation  of  the  alleged  phrenological 
organs  by  the  mesmeric  fluid  was  a  favourite  demonstration. 
Braid  repeatedly  tested  the  reaction  on  private  persons 
amongst  his  acquaintance,  who  had  never  witnessed  any 
demonstration  of  phrenology,  and  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
alleged  positions  of  the  organs.  He  was  of  course  alive  to 
the  risk  of  suggestion,  and  was  careful  to  guard  against  any 
hint  of  the  desired  result  reaching  the  patient  either  from 
himself  or  from  the  spectators.  The  demonstrations  were  of 
a  most  surprising  kind,  and  sufficient  at  the  time  to  convince 
Braid  that  there  was  some  physiological  connection  between 
the  part  of  the  scalp  affected  and  the  resulting  emotional 
reaction.  Modern  physiologists  would  probably  find  it  easier 
to  reject  Ikaid's  facts  than  to  accept  the  explanation  which 
he  proffers.  If  we  can  place  confidence  in  Braid's  account 
of  the  manifestations  observed  by  him,  and  can  share  his 
conviction  that  the  sensitive  could  have  received  no  hint  of 
the  results  to  be  expected,  we  must  recognise  that  an  explana- 
tion in  physiological  terms  is  not  yet  forthcoming.* 

But  thought-transference,  through  the  operation  of  one 
nervous  system  upon  another,  is  more  directly  suggested  by 
some  other  experiments  of  this  date. 

Jussieu,  it  will  be  remembered,  in  his  separate  report  of 
1784,  recorded  some  observations  which  seemed  to  indicate 

'  Neurypnology,  in  which  Braid's  experiments  in  phreno-mesmerisin 
were  recorded,  was  pubHshed  in  1843.  The  experiments  recounted  in 
the  Medical  Times  of  November,  1845,  show  that  Braid  had  aheady 
begun  to  feel  dubious  about  the  records  given  in  the  earlier  work.  In 
reviewing  some  years  later  the  whole  subject  of  hypnotism  {Magic, 
Witchcraft,  &c.,  third  edition,  1852)  he  makes,  so  far  as  I  can  discover, 
no  explicit  reference  to  Phreno-hypnotism — an  omission  the  more 
significant  in  view  of  the  large  space  devoted  to  the  subject  in  his 
Neurypnology.  From  a  passage  on  p.  71,  however,  it  may  perhaps  be 
inferred  that,  in  looking  back  on  the  matter,  he  was  not  quite  satisfied 
that  he  had  correctly  represented  the  conditions  under  which  his 
recorded  results  were  obtained.  Possibly  more  than  he  realised  at  the 
time  may  have  been  due  to  previous  training  of  a  subconscious  kind, 
or  to  inadvertent  suggestion  on  his  own  part. 


THE   FLUIDIC   THEORY  165 

that  the  magnetic  influence  could  be  conveyed  from  a  dis- 
tance without  the  knowledge  of  the  patient.  The  belief  in 
such  action  at  a  distance  was  universal  amongst  the  early 
Magnetists;  but  it  was  rarely  put  to  the  test.  The  experi- 
ments made  by  the  second  French  Commission,  as  already 
indicated,  were  inconclusive.  At  the  epoch  we  are  now 
considering  there  were  many  demonstrations  of  this  alleged 
influence  at  a  distance,  in  inducing  temporary  catalepsy, 
hypnotic  sleep,  or  irresistible  attraction  to  the  operator. 
Esdaile  claims  to  have  entranced  a  blind  man  at  a  distance 
of  some  paces,  and  to  have  thrown  into  the  cataleptic  state 
in  a  Court  of  Justice  three  persons  successively,  each  of  whom 
was  unaware  of  his  intention  to  mesmerise  them.^  An 
amateur  mesmerist,  W.  H.  Stafford  Thompson,  claimed  on 
many  occasions  to  have  influenced  his  friends,  to  the  extent 
of  throwing  them  into  a  hypnotic  sleep,  or  impelling  them  to 
come  into  the  room  where  he  was  seated,  by  the  mere 
exercise  of  his  silent  will.^  Dr.  Ashburner,3  Dr.  Haddock,4 
and  other  contemporary  writers  record  instances  of  the  kind. 
In  many  of  these  cases  it  seems  probable  that  the  subject 
may  have  become  aware  of  the  operator's  intention.  In 
very  few  instances  does  it  appear  that  the  conditions  of  the 
experiment  were  so  contrived  as  to  exclude  this  possibility. 
The  following  case,  however,  quoted  from  Townshend's 
Facts  in  Mesmerism^  seems  worth  consideration.  Towns- 
hend  was  one  of  the  most  careful  experimenters  of  the  time. 
Two  previous  trials  of  the  same  kind  with  the  same  patient 
had  been  completely  successful.  It  will  be  observed  that 
both  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  sleep  are  alleged  to 
have  coincided  with  Townshend's  effort  of  will. 

"  The  third  trial  that  I  made  to  mesmerise  this  patient  from  a  dis- 
tance was  still  more  remarkable  and  decisive. 


'  Mesmerism  in  India,  p.  92. 

'  See  his  articles  in    the  Zoist,   vols.    iii.  p.  319,  v.  p.  253,  and 
elsewhere. 
3  Zoist,  vol.  V.  p.  260. 
*  Somnolism  and  Psycheism,  p.  92. 
s  P.  314. 


i66     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

"  One  evening,  when  sitting  with  my  family,  the  idea  occurred  to 

me, 'Could  I   mesmerise  Anna  M there  as  I  then  was,  while  she 

was  in  her  own  house  ?'  to  which  I  knew  she  was  just  then  confined 
by  slight  indisposition.  Acting  on  this  thought,  I  begged  all  the  party 
preseiit  to  note  the  hour  (it  was  exactly  nine  o'clock),  and  to  bear  me 
witness  that  then  and  there  I  attempted  a  mesmeric  experiment. 

"This  time  I  attempted  to  bring  before  my  imagination  very  vividly 
the  person  of  my  slcepwaker,  and  even  aided  the  concentration  of  my 
thoughts  by  the  usual  mesmeric  gestures  ;  I  also  at  tiie  end  of  an  hour 
said,  '  I  will  now  awake  Anna,'  and  used  appropriate  gestures.  We 
now  awaited  with  more  curiosity  than  confidence  the  result  of  this 
process. 

"  The  following  morning  Anna  made  her  appearance,  just  as  we 
were  at  breakfast,  exclaiming,  '  Oh,  sir !  did  you  magnetise  me  last 
night  ?  About  nine  o'clock  I  fell  asleep,  and  motlier  and  sisters  say 
they  could  not  wake  me  with  all  their  shaking  of  me,  and  they  were 
quite  friglitcned  ;  but  after  an  hour  I  woke  of  myself  ;  and  I  think 
from  all  this  that  my  sleep  must  have  been  magnetic.  It  also  did  me 
a  great  deal  of  good,  for  I  felt  quite  recovered  from  my  cold  after  it. 
After  a  natural  sleep  I  never  feel  so  much  refreshed.  When  I  sleep  for 
an  hour  in  magnetism,  it  is  as  if  I  had  rested  a  whole  night.'     These 

were  the  words  of  Anna  M ,  noted  down  at  the  time  as  accurately 

as  possible." 


But  Townshend  was  a  better  observer  and  recorder  than 
most  of  his  contemporaries  ;  and,  taken  as  a  whole,  the 
numerous  reports  of  similar  cases  scattered  through  the 
mesmeric  literature  of  this  date  would  scarcely  call  for 
consideration  on  their  merits.  They  seem  to  have  more 
significance,  however,  in  the  light  of  the  experiments  in  the 
production  of  sleep  conducted  by  several  French  men  of 
science  in  recent  times.  Of  these  recent  experiments  the 
most  striking  are  those  made  at  Havre  in  1885  and  1886  by 
Professor  Janet  and  Dr.  Gibert,  with  Madame  B.  (L^onie)  as 
the  subject.  The  distance  between  agent  and  subject  in 
these  experiments  varied  from  a  quarter-mile  to  one  mile. 
The  sensitive,  Madame  B.,  was  staying  in  the  Pavilion  at 
Havre,  a  house  occupied  by  Dr.  Gibert's  sister,  who,  herself 
ignorant  of  the  hour  fixed  for  the  experiment,  was  able  to 
report  the  results.  The  operator  was  sometimes  Dr.  Gibert, 
sometimes  Professor  Janet.  The  hour  of  the  experiments 
was  sometimes  chosen  by  lot,  or  suggested  by  a  third  person  ; 


THE   FLUIDIC   THEORY  167 

they  ranged  from  11  a.m.  to  11.35  p.m.;  precautions  were 
taken  to  prevent  Madame  B.  from  having  any  suspicion  of 
the  time  selected.  The  result  willed  by  the  experimenter 
was  usually  the  induction  of  hypnotic  sleep ;  but  on  three 
occasions  he  willed  that  Madame  B.  should  leave  the  house 
and  come  to  him.  Out  of  twenty-five  trials  eighteen  were 
completely  successful,  and  there  were  four  partial  or  doubtful 
successes. 

It  should  be  added  that  during  the  period  of  the  experi- 
ments Madame  B.  only  twice  fell  spontaneously  into  the 
hypnotic  sleep — once  on  looking  at  a  picture  of  Dr.  Gibert; 
and  that  she  never  left  the  house  in  the  evenings  except  on 
the  three  occasions  on  which  she  did  so  in  apparent  response 
to  the  operator's  will.  There  seems  little  ground,  therefore, 
for  attributing  the  results  to  chance.^ 

'  See  Janet's  article  in  Revue  Philosophique,  February,  1886.  Pro- 
ceedings S.P.R.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  128,  seqq.  Some  further  experiments  with 
the  same  subject  are  reported  by  Professor  Richet,  Revue  de 
VHypnotisme,  February,  1888. 


CHAPTER    IX 
CLAIRVOYANCE 

Community  of  sensation  and  clairvoyance  partly  explicable  by 
thought-tr.m^fcrcncc — Clairvoyance  at  close  (jiiarters  larj^ely  fraudulent 
— But  probably  in  sonic  cases  due  to  hyper;e^liiesia  of  vision — The  case 
of  Alexis  Didier — His  card-playing  and  reading  in  closed  books — 
Houdin's  testimony — Alexis  probably  an  automatist — His  description  of 
sealed  packets  and  of  distant  scenes  possibly  indicative  of  sui>ernormal 
power — Other  examples  of  probably  telepathic  clairvoyance  j^iven  by 
Lee,  Haddock,  Gregory— Many  Mesmerists  see  in  these  demonstrations 
proof  of  tlic  action  of  the  soul  apart  from  the  body. 

IN  the  last  chapter  we  have  briefly  referred  to  the  survival 
in  byways  of  contemporary  thought  of  the  belief  in  the 
manifestation  of  magnetic,  odylic,  or  other  imponder- 
able effluences  which  formed  the  foundation  of  the  Mesmerists' 
creed  in  1 840-1 850.  It  has  been  suc;;.;csted  that  the  extra- 
ordinary persistence  of  the  belief,  in  face  of  repeated 
demonstrations  that  the  sensations  on  which  it  is  based  are 
imaginary,  may  be  due  to  some  communication  taking  place 
between  the  nervous  system  of  the  experimenter  and  the 
percipient.  This  hypothesis  is  strengthened  by  the  considera- 
tion of  the  numerous  experiments  in  the  induction  of  sleep  at 
a  distance,  especially  those  conducted  twenty  years  ago  by 
Janet  and  Gibert.  For  nearly  thirty  years  past  the  investi- 
gators of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  have  worked  at 
the  subject  and  have  brought  forward  a  body  of  evidence, 
based  partly  on  experiment,  partly  on  observation,  sufficient 
at  any  rate  to  establish  thought-transference  or  telepathy 
as  a  working  hypothesis.     In  the  present  chapter  we  shall 


CLAIRVOYANCE  169 

endeavour  to  show  that  this  hypothesis  will  go  far  to  explain 
many  other  marvels  which  must  otherwise  be  rejected  as 
altogether  incredible,  or  accepted — as  was  actually  the  case 
with  most  of  the  Mesmerists  of  the  period  under  review — as 
the  basis  of  theories  far  more  dubious. 

These  so-called  "  higher  phenomena "  may  be  roughly 
classed  under  the  categories  of  community  of  sensation ; 
clairvoyance  at  close  quarters,  or  seeing  without  eyes ;  and 
clairvoyance  at  a  distance.  It  is  obvious  that  the  hypothesis 
of  an  indifferent  physical  agency  was  inadequate  to  explain 
such  manifestations.  Some,  indeed,  of  the  earlier  Magnetists, 
as  already  stated,  did  attempt  to  explain  vision  through 
opaque  bodies  as  due  to  the  all-penetrating  action  of  the 
hypothetical  fluid  and  "  transference  of  sensation  "  as  due  to 
concentration  of  nerve-force.  But  the  explanation  is  purely 
a  juggle  with  words.  It  is  clear  that  they  had  not  attempted 
to  conceive  the  modus  operandi ;  and  in  the  case  of  clairvoy- 
ance at  a  distance  the  attempt  at  a  physical  explanation  was 
for  the  most  part  abandoned.  The  more  sober-minded 
investigators  at  this  period,  amongst  whom  we  must  reckon 
Elliotson,  and  generally  those  who  had  not  witnessed  in  their 
own  persons  any  conclusive  illustration  of  the  supposed 
faculty,  were  content  to  keep  an  open  mind  upon  the 
subject.  Others — and  they  were  the  majority  —  looked 
upon  the  manifestations  as  a  certain  proof  of  the  action 
of  the  soul  apart  from  the  body — a  belief  which  is  crystal- 
lised in  the  name  "  travelling  clairvoyance." 

The  problems  dealt  with  in  the  last  chapter  are  of  a 
comparatively  simple  kind.  There  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt  that  the  odylic  flames,  the  magnetic  thrills,  and  all 
the  protean  manifestations  of  the  mysterious  fluid  were 
elaborated  by  the  imagination  of  the  percipient.  The 
demonstration,  to  those  who  have  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to 
hear,  is  so  far  complete.  But  some  of  the  problems  pre- 
sented by  these  higher  phenomena  still  await  solution,  and 
the  investigation  is  unusually  complicated  and  difficult. 
No  good  ground  has  been  shown  for  imputing  to  the 
numerous    company   of  Reichenbach's    sensitives   deliberate 


I70     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

deception.  There  was  little  fame  and  no  money 
to  be  gained  by  seeing  flames  from  a  magnet.  But, 
unfortunately,  there  is  and  always  has  been  money  in 
clairvoyance;  and  —  what  is  to  many  minds  an  even 
stronger  motive  than  money — there  is  the  pleasure  of 
exciting  wonder  and  admiration.  In  studying  the  records 
of  clairvoyance  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  fraud  is 
the  first  explanation  to  be  considered.  But  it  need  not 
necessarily  be  the  last. 

The  so-called  community  of  sensation  between  mesmerist 
and  subject  first  came  into  prominence  at  this  period.  It 
had,  indeed,  been  observed,  in  the  special  form  of  com- 
munication of  the  symptoms  of  disease  from  patient  to 
clairvoyant,  as  early  as  1784.  As  shown  in  Chapter  V., 
Bertrand  believed  the  occurrence  of  the  faculty  in  the 
somnambulic  state  to  be  well  established,  giving  from  his 
own  observations  several  instances  of  its  exercise.  But  with 
the  English  Mesmerists  the  faculty  took  a  new  direction. 
It  was  no  longer  confined  to  morbid  sensations  ;  and  the 
sympathy  was  no  longer  exercised,  as  before,  exclusively 
between  patient  and  clairvoyant.  The  sympathies  of  the 
entranced  somnambule  were  now  turned  to  the  mes- 
merist :  she  would  feel  what  he  felt,  taste  what  he  tasted,  see 
what  he  saw.  Innumerable  illustrations  of  this  power,  real 
or  imaginary,  are  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of  the  period. 
But  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  these  earlier  results,  since 
they  add  but  slight  corroboration  to  the  more  striking  and 
more  rigorous  experiments  in  the  same  field  made  by  Mrs.  H. 
Sidgwick  and  other  recent  investigators. 

The  demonstrations  of  clairvoyance  at  close  quarters  stand 
upon  a  very  different  footing.  The  experience  of  the  Burdin 
Commission,  described  in  Chapter  VI.,  would  seem  conclusive, 
so  far  as  negative  evidence  can  be  conclusive,  as  to  the 
non-reality  of  the  alleged  faculty.  Nevertheless,  the  marvel 
obtained  an  extraordinary  vogue  in  England  at  this  time, 
not  only  amongst  the  uninstructcd  crowd  who  thronged 
the  performances  of  itinerant  lecturers,  but  with  medical 
men   and   sober-minded   investigators   like   Townshend.     It 


CLAIRVOYANCE  171 

obtains  a  certain  amount  of  credence  even  at  the  present 
day.i 

Devices  more  or  less  ingenious,  but  all  relying  for  success 
mainly  upon  their  audacity  and  the  simplicity  of  the  victims, 
were  used  by  some  of  the  clairvoyants  of  this  period. 
George  Goble,  whose  case  is  related  by  Sir  John  Forbes.^ 
opened  sealed  boxes  under  the  shelter  of  a  friendly  pillow. 
Major  Buckley  found  forty-four  sensitives,  most  of  them 
young  ladies  of  good  social  position,  who  could  read  the 
mottoes  enclosed  in  nuts — hazel-nuts  or  walnuts  filled  with 
sweets — before  they  were  opened.  The  trick  in  this  case 
was,  no  doubt,  performed  by  substituting,  for  the  nuts  just 
bought  from  the  confectioner's,  other  nuts  which  had  been 
already  opened,  so  that  the  mottoes  might  be  learnt  by  heart.3 

Most,  however,  of  the  mesmeric  clairvoyants  of  this  type 
had  their  eyes  bandaged,  as  was  the  case  with  the  French 
subjects  described  in  Chapter  VI.  It  is  not  clear  that  these 
cases  were  necessarily  fraudulent.  The  trance  may  have 
been  genuine — there  are  indications  in  some  cases  that  it  was 
so — and  the  subject  may  in  some  cases  have  been  ignorant  of 
the  means  by  which  he  obtained  the  information  displayed. 
In  some  experiments  made  to  test  the  existence  of  Reichen- 
bach's  magnetic  effluence  Messrs.  Jastrow  and  Nuttall  found 
that  the  subject  may  derive  knowledge  from  sensations  too 
faint  to  rise  to  the  level  of  consciousness.4  Again,  in  the 
course  of  some  experiments  in  reading  cards  by  the  touch 
alone,  Mrs.  Verrall  found  that  a  picture  of  the  card  would 
appear   before   her  mental  vision,   and  that,  after  a  certain 

'  See,  for  instance,  Myers'  Human  Personality,  vol.  i.  p.  556,  where 
the  testimony  of  Major  Buckley  is  cited,  and  Dr.  Alfred  Russel 
Wallace's  remarks  on  Alexis  Didier,  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  xiv. 

'  Illustrations  of  Modern  Mesmerism,  1845. 

3  The  proof  of  the  statement  in  the  text,  since  Major  Buckley's  young 
ladies  were  never,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  caught  flagrante  delicto,  is 
purely  circumstantial.  But  for  those  who  read  the  records  with  care 
it  is,  I  think,  sufficient.  For  accounts  of  these  experiments  see  Zoist, 
vol.  vi.  pp.  96  and  380,  vol.  viii.  p.  265  ;  Gregory's  Letters  on  Animal 
Magnetism,  p.  362  ;  Ashburner,  On  tJie  Philosophy  of  Animal  Magnetism, 
p.  301. 

♦  Proceedings  American  S.P.R.  (1885),  p.  116. 


172     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

degree  of  proficiency  had  been  attained  in  interpreting  her 
tactile  sensations,  she  ceased  to  be  conscious  of  the  process 
by  which  she  learnt  what  the  cards  were.^ 

Further,  there  are  a  few  experiments  which  would  appear 
to  indicate  abnormal  powers  of  vision  on  the  part  of  some 
of  the  sensitives.  Townshend's  subject,  a  French  youth  of 
fifteen,  was  able  to  distinguish  cards  in  a  cupboard  which  to 
ordinary  senses  was  perfectly  dark.^  Ellen  Dawson,  in  a 
dark  room,  is  said  to  have  accurately  described  the  coloured 
plates  in  Cuvier's  Animal  Kingdom.^ 

The  best  illustrations,  not  only  of  the  so-called  clairvoyance 
at  close  quarters,  but  of  the  more  problematic  clairvoyance  at 
a  distance,  were  given  by  a  young  Frenchman,  Alexis  Didicr. 
Alexis  was  about  nineteen  when  he  first  came  to  England  in 
1844,  and  we  have  reports  of  his  performances  extending 
over  seven  or  eight  years.  His  mesmerist  was  one  Marcillet, 
a  man  of  good  education  and  social  address.  Marcillet  was 
accepted  as  a  friend  by  Elliotson  and  the  Mesmeric  school  of 
the  period,  and  was  implicitly  trusted  by  them — a  fact  which 
should  be  borne  in  mind  in  considering  the  clairvoyant's 
performances.  Alexis  gave  numerous  receptions,  under  the 
guidance  of  Marcillet,  in  London  in  the  summer  of  1844,  and 
again  at  Brighton  and  Hastings  in  January,  1849.4  His  fee  is 
said  s  to  have  been  five  guineas  a  sitting,  and  he  sometimes 
gave  three  or  four  sittings  a  day.  The  performances  were 
generally  given  in  private  houses,  but  as  from  twenty  to  forty 
people  appear  as  a  rule  to  have  attended,  the  conditions 
were  not  favourable  for  exact  observation.  Marcillet  was 
invariably  present ;  and  the  members  of  the  company  were 
not  always  known  to  each  other.  Forbes's  conjecture  that 
confederates  may  have  been  present  to  assist  the  tricks  was 
not  therefore  unreasonable.  The  performance  always  fol- 
lowed a  regular  order.     It  began  with  an  exhibition  of  the 

'  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  xi.  p.  176. 
»  Tovvnshcnd,  Facts  in  Mesmerism. 

3  Zoist,  vol.  lii.  p.  229.     The  expcrinienter  was  W.  Hands,  a  surgeon. 
*  An  account  of  these  later  demonstrations  is  given  by  Edwin  Lee, 
M.D.  {Animal  Magnetism,  1866). 
s  By  Sir  John  Forbes,  Illustrations  of  Modern  Mesmerism. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  173 

phenomenon  of  cataleptic  rigidity.  Alexis  would  be  seated 
in  a  chair,  his  legs  extended  horizontally  in  front  of  him, 
entirely  unsupported,  and  a  heavy  man  would  stand  upon  his 
thighs.  Then  began  the  clairvoyant  performance,  (i)  The 
subject's  eyes  would  be  bandaged,  and  he  would  play  ecarte. 
(2)  He  would  remove  the  bandages,  a  book  would  be  opened 
and,  holding  his  finger  on  a  given  part  of  the  page,  he  would 
read  words  in  a  corresponding  part,  ten,  twenty,  or  forty  pages 
further  on.  (3)  He  would  describe  the  contents  of  sealed 
packets  presented  to  him.  (4)  He  would  give  descriptions 
of  absent  persons,  and  diagnose  their  ailments  ;  would 
describe  the  houses,  furniture,  and  pictures  of  his  questioners. 

As  regards  the  playing  at  ecarte  there  is  little  to  be 
said.  Alexis  was  bandaged  with  cotton-wool,  leather  pads, 
and  silk  handkerchiefs.  But,  as  shown,  no  bandaging  of  this 
kind  can  ever  be  satisfactory  ;  and  several  witnesses  testify 
that  Alexis  habitually  interfered  and  fidgeted  with  his  band- 
ages. There  need  be  no  question  that  he  could,  and  did,  see 
through  interstices  in  the  bandaging,  but  it  is  astonishing 
how  much  he  saw,  and  with  what  rapidity  and  accuracy. 
On  two  occasions  the  celebrated  Robert  Houdin  had  private 
sittings  with  Alexis.  On  each  occasion  he  brought  in  his 
pocket  an  unopened  pack  of  cards,  broke  the  stamped  cover- 
ing at  the  table,  and  himself  dealt  the  cards.  After  the  very 
first  deal,  while  the  ten  cards  still  lay  face  downwards  on  the 
table,  untouched  by  Alexis,  he  correctly  named  every  card. 
On  the  second  occasion  Houdin  brought  with  him  a  trusted 
friend,  to  correct  his  own  observations.  Again  and  again 
Alexis,  bandaged  with  all  the  conjuror's  skill,  showed  com- 
plete knowledge,  not  simply  of  the  cards  in  his  own  hand,  but 
of  those  of  his  adversary,  sometimes,  again,  of  the  cards  still 
face  downwards  on  the  table. 

Houdin  was  completely  staggered,  and  professed  himself 
unable  to  explain  what  he  had  seen  by  any  means  within  the 
resources  of  his  art.^ 

'  Houdin's  testimony  is  given  in  De  Mirville's  book,  Des  Esprits  et  leurs 
Manifestalions  fluidiques  (Paris,  1854),  vol.  i.  pp.  18-32  ;  quoted  in 
Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  xiv.  pp.  373-381. 


174     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Probably  if  Alexis  had  simply  seen  his  own  cards  when 
held  in  his  hand  Houdin  would  have  arrived  at  the  true 
explanation.  What  staggered  him,  no  doubt,  was  that  Alexis 
should  see  so  much  more  than  this.  I  take  it  that  the  ex- 
planation probably  lay  in  Alexis  seeing  the  reflection  of  the 
cards  as  they  fell  on  a  polished  surface.  The  reflecting  sur- 
face may  have  been  the  table.  In  not  one  of  the  numerous 
accounts  which  I  have  read  is  the  table  described,  except 
sometimes  as  a  "  card  table."  But  highly  glazed  cards  would 
no  doubt  serve  the  purpose.  Houdin  does  not  describe  his 
own  cards.  But  in  the  accounts  of  the  English  experiments 
of  1844  one  writer  mentions  that  the  backs  of  the  cards  were 
glazed. »  One  would  have  expected  an  eminent  conjuror  to 
have  been  alive  to  this  possibility.  But  Alexis's  extraordinary, 
though  not  uniform,  success  in  this  particular  performance 
indicates  that  he  must  have  been  possessed  of  an  almost 
incredible  acutcness  of  vision.^ 

A  like  extreme  acuteness  of  vision  was  demonstrated  in  the 
next  item  of  the  programme.  In  Robert  Houdin's  second 
sitting  this  part  of  the  performance  is  described  as  follows  : — 

"  R.  Houdin,  after  taking  off  the  somnambulist's  useless  bandages, 
draws  a  book  of  his  own  from  his  pocket,  and  asks  him  to  read  eight 
pages  further  on,  starting  from  a  given  place.  Alexis  pricks  the  page 
two-thirds  of  the  way  down  with  a  pin  and  reads,  '  Aprcs  cettc  triste 
ccrcmonic.' 

" '  Stop,'  says  R.  Houdin  ;  '  that  is  enough,  I  will  look.' 


•  Zoist,  vol.  ii.  p.  496. 

'  Some  years  ago  I  paid  several  visits  to  an  amateur  clairvoyant  who 
professed  to  be  able  to  tell  cards  by  looking  at  their  backs.  The  clair- 
voyant's own  cards  were  marked.  When  my  pack  was  used  the  clair- 
voyance consisted  in  reading  the  reflection  of  the  card,  which  was 
placed  on  a  highly  polished  cloth-bound  book.  But  the  cards  were 
taken  up  one  by  one,  and  the  whole  performance  was  very  slow  and 
hesitating.  The  performance  in  this  case  took  place  sometimes  by  day- 
light, sometimes  by  artificial  light.  I  observed  that  the  clairvoyant  was 
very  particular  in  the  arrangement  of  the  illumination.  Alexis  was, 
of  course,  always  free  to  choose  his  position  with  reference  to  the  source 
of  light.  Mrs.  Vcrrall's  experiments  {Proc.  S.P.R.,  vol.  xi.  p.  174)  indi- 
cate that  with  practice  considerable  facility  can  be  attained  in  reading 
cards  by  reflection  from  polished  surfaces. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  175 

"  Nothing  like  it  on  the  eighth  page,  but  on  the  next  page  at  the 
same  height  are  the  words,  '  apres  cette  triste  ceremonie.' 
"  '  That's  enough,'  says  Houdin  ;  '  what  a  marvel  ! ' " 

But  the  account  was  written  by  de  Mirville.  Houdin  in- 
deed attests  that  the  incidents  actually  took  place  as  de- 
scribed by  de  Mirville,  but  we  cannot  hold  him  as  fully 
responsible  for  all  the  details  as  if  he  had  himself  written 
the  account. 

From  the  accounts  given  by  Forbes  and  others  it  appears 
that  what  generally  took  place  was  as  follows  :  A  book  would 
be  presented  to  Alexis  by  one  of  those  present.  If  not  pre- 
sented open  he  would  open  it  himself,  and  instantly  placing 
his  hand  or  handkerchief  over  the  open  page,  would  offer  to 
read  from  any  part  of  the  covered  surface.  This  performance 
frequently  took  place  with  the  eyes  still  bandaged.  He 
would  now  remove  the  bandage,  and,  taking  up  the  book, 
would  hold  it  before  his  eyes  whilst  he  rapidly  separated 
a  sheaf  of  some  twenty  to  one  hundred  pages.  He  would 
then  read  correctly  a  few  words,  sometimes  in  a  part  of  the 
page  chosen  by  himself,  sometimes  in  a  part  chosen  by  the 
audience.  The  words  read  would  be  found  in  a  corre- 
sponding position  several  pages  further  on — sometimes  five, 
sometimes  one  hundred — and  Alexis  would  profess  to  indi- 
cate, and  sometimes  with  approximate  correctness,  how  far 
on  they  were.^ 

We  must  suppose  that  Alexis,  in  separating  a  portion  of 
the  book  for  the  purpose  of  the  experiment,  was  able  to  per- 
ceive words  and  sentences  as   he  moved  the  pages  rapidly 

*  See  the  account  by  Forbes  (op.  cit)  of  these  experiments.  Forbes 
paid  several  visits  to  Alexis,  accompanied  by  Carpenter  (see  Mesmerism, 
Spiritualism,  &c.,  by  Carpenter,  1877,  p.  77).  The  Mesmerists  give  few 
details  of  the  experiments,  and  rarely  mention  that  Alexis  handled  the 
book  at  all.  In  some  cases  even  it  is  expressly  stated  that  he  had  no 
opportunity  of  turning  over  the  leaves,  or  even  of  touching  the  book 
(see,  e.g.,  Zoist,  ii.  p.  500). 

In  such  cases  we  are,  no  doubt,  entitled  to  assume  as  probable  an 
error  of  memory  or  observation  on  the  part  of  the  recorder.  Reading 
the  twelfth  line  from  the  bottom  in  a  page  of  which  top  and  side  were 
uncut  is  perhaps  within  the  bounds  of  possibility.    (Lee,  op.  cit.,  p.  278). 


176    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

sideways  before  his  eyes.  But  his  movements  were  so  rapid 
as  to  escape  the  suspicion  of  most  observers  ;  and  the  fre- 
quency of  his  success,  even  when  he  allowed  the  spectators 
to  choose  the  part  of  the  page,  was  very  remarkable.  There 
is  one  curious  detail  in  this  experiment  the  significance  of 
which  neither  Sir  John  Forbes  nor  the  Mesmerists  appear  to 
have  appreciated.  When  challenged  to  read  a  sentence 
several  pages  deep  Alexis,  instead  of  saying  the  words  aloud, 
generally  took  a  pencil  and  wrote  them  down.'  Why  did  he 
do  this?  If  the  thing  was  simply  a  clever  conjuring  trick, 
and  Alexis  was  reproducing  sentences  which  he  had  delibe- 
rately committed  to  memory,  he  would  naturally  prefer  to 
speak  them,  first,  because  the  act  of  speaking  would  involve 
less  effort  and,  secondly,  because,  if  the  words  were  written, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  explain  away  mi.stakes.  The  fact 
that  he  preferred  to  write  them  is  an  almost  certain  indica- 
tion that  the  performance  was  not  a  trick,  but  an  instance  of 
automatic  reaction,  or,  in  Carpenter's  phraseology,  uncon- 
scious cerebration.  It  is  well  known  that  latent  memories 
and  other  subconscious  impressions  are  frequently  and  easily 
reproduced  in  automatic  writing,  liut  automatic  speech  is 
a  much  rarer  phenomenon,  and  indicates  generally  a  more 
serious  dissociation  of  consciousness. 

Both  the  feat  just  described  and  the  feat  of  reading  the 
cards  face  downwards  point  to  a  rapidity  and  acuteness  of 
vision  beyond  the  normal,  and  taken  in  conjunction  with  the 
preference  for  writing  rather  than  speech,  seem  to  make  it 
almost  certain  that  Alexis  was  not  in  the  strict  sense  a  con- 
juror, but  belonged  rather  to  the  class  of  persons  whom 
the  Spiritualists  call  mediums,  and  to  whom  we  may  apply 

'  Roughly,  this  was  the  case  in  two  experiments  out  of  three,  so  far 
as  Dr.  Lee's  account  shows.  The  wording  of  the  reports  of  1844  is  as 
a  rule  ambiguous  ;  but  even  from  these  it  appears  that  Ale.xis  sometimes 
wrote  instead  of  speaking  the  words,  and  he  may  have  done  so  gene- 
rally. In  his  experiments  with  Houdin  he  not  only  appears  to  have  read 
the  words,  but  he  further  pricked  the  part  of  the  page  where  they 
would  be  found.  This  action,  though  it  is  occasionally  recorded,  is 
unusual,  and  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  reading  aloud,  probably 
indicates  that  Alexis's  perception  was  clearer  than  usual. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  177 

the  non-committal  term  of  Automatists.  Further,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  he  was  himself  unaware  of  the  channel 
through  which  his  information  reached  him. 

The  feats  so  far  described  do  not,  however,  point  to  any 
new  faculty.  The  annals  of  Hypnotism  contain  many  in- 
stances, as  yet  indeed  very  imperfectly  investigated,  of  extra- 
ordinary acuteness  of  the  special  senses,  and  we  need  not  go 
beyond  this  explanation.  But  automatic  perception,  even 
supplemented  by  hyperaesthesia,  seems  hardly  an  adequate 
explanation  for  the  next  item  in  Alexis's  programme.  No 
doubt  some  of  the  circumstances  are  very  suggestive  of  fraud. 
Alexis  would  not  accept  a  packet  at  the  hands  of  any  one 
who  was  antipathetic  to  him.  If  he  were  pressed  to  try  such 
a  packet,  it  must  be  opened  and  its  contents  shown — no 
doubt  within  the  possible  range  of  prying  eyes — to  some 
sympathetic  spectator.^  When  Alexis  took  the  packet  his 
conduct  was  again  suspicious.  He  would  twist  and  turn  it 
over  in  his  hand,  apply  it  successively  to  his  forehead,  the 
back  of  his  head,  the  stomach,  or  even  the  toes.  He  would 
on  occasion  attempt,  if  not  prevented,  to  break  the  seal.  By 
these  means,  no  doubt,  he  was  enabled  to  feel  the  shape  and 
frequently  to  make  a  shrewd  guess  at  the  contents.  If  he 
had  to  deal  with  a  word  in  one  or  two  folds  of  paper  or 
a  single  sealed  envelope,  it  is  probable  that  in  the  course  of 
his  manipulations  he  was  generally  able  to  read  it  either  by 
means  of  a  gap,  or  through  a  single  fold  of  paper.  That  he 
did,  in  fact,  sometimes  decipher  the  words  by  ordinary  vision 
is  proved  by  his  occasionally,  as  a  further  test,  driving  pins 
through  the  envelope  and  transfixing  particular  letters.^  But 
though  Alexis,  no  doubt,  used  his  eyes  and  his  fingers  when 
he  could,  and  though  he  probably  gained  some  information 
by"  fishing"  questions  and  by  thinking  aloud,  it  seems  certain 
that  in  many  cases  the  solution  must  be  sought  in  some  other 
direction.     The  records  of  1844  are  very  fragmentary  and  the 

'  Sir  John  Forbes  was  one  of  those  whom  Alexis  found  antipathetic  ; 
so  was  the  Rev.  F.  Robertson,  of  Brighton  (Lee,  op.  cit.,  p.  258). 

"  See,  e.g.,  Zoist,  vol.  ii.  pp.  294  and  510-524,  and  Forbes's  and  Car- 
penter's books  already  cited. 


178     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

marvels  are  mostly  described  at  secondhand.  The  following 
incident,  however,  is  well  attested.  The  meeting  was  held  at 
the  house  of  Mr.  Dupuis,  in  VVelbeck  Street,  on  July  2,  1844, 
and  the  account  was  drawn  up  by  Lord  Adare. 

"Colonel  Llewellyn,  who  was,  I  believe,  rather  sceptical,  produced 
a  morocco  case,  something  like  a  surgical  instrument  case.  Alexis 
took  it,  placed  it  to  his  stomach,  and  said,  '  Tlie  object  is  a  hard 
substance,  not  white,  enclosed  in  something  more  white  than  itself  ; 
it  is  a  bone  taken  from  a  greater  body  ;  a  human  bone — yours.  It 
has  been  separated,  and  cut  so  as  to  leave  a  flat  side.'  Alexis  opened 
the  case,  took  out  a  piece  of  bone  wrapped  in  silver  paper,  and  said, 
'  The  ball  struck  here  ;  it  was  an  extraordinary  ball  in  effect  ;  you 
received  three  separate  injuries  at  the  same  moment  ;  the  bone  was 
broken  in  three  pieces  ;  you  were  wounded  early  in  the  day  whilst 
engaged  in  ch.irging  the  enemy.'  He  also  described  the  dress  of  the 
soldiers,  and  was  right  in  all  tliese  particulars.  This  excited  the 
astonishment  of  all  the  bystanders,  especially  the  gallant  colonel. 
This  account  is  drawn  up,  not  only  from  my  own  notes,  but  from 
Colonel  Llewellyn's  statement  made  after  the  seance,  and  from  a 
written  account  given  me  by  a  lady  who  was  sitting  close  by."* 

A  corresponding  but  rather  fuller  account  of  the  incident 
was  sent  to  the  Medical  Times  by  the  Rev.  G.  Sandby 
("  Clericus  ").  It  seems  clear  from  the  concurrent  testimony 
of  the  two  witnesses  that  Alexis  did  not  open  the  packet 
until  he  had  fully  described  the  contents,  and  that  he  did 
not  gain  his  information  from  hints  inadvertently  let  drop  by 
the  bystanders.  There  remains  the  possibility  that  Alexis 
had  somehow  learnt  particulars  of  the  proposed  test  before- 
hand. Colonel  Llewellyn  may  have  unsuspectingly  taken  the 
respectable  M.  Marcillet  into  his  confidence ;  or  Alexis  and 
his  manager  may  have  bribed  servants  or  employed  private 
inquiry  agents.  There  is  no  doubt  that  information  could 
be  gained  by  such  means ;  and  as  Alexis  was  more  or  less 
free  to  exercise  his  choice  amongst  the  numerous  articles 
presented  to  him  at  any  sitting,  the  chances  of  success  are,  of 
course,  much  increased.  But  the  systematic  record  by  Dr. 
Lee  of  thirteen  seances  held  at  Brighton  and  Hastings  in 
January,  1849,  seems  to  put  this  last  explanation  practically 
'  Zoist,  vol.  ii.  p.  510. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  179 

out  of  court.  Dr.  Lee  is,  no  doubt,  a  convinced  and,  it  must 
be  admitted,  credulous  Mesmerist,  and  his  reports  are  very 
condensed.!  But  he  expressly  says  that  he  had  recorded 
all  the  failures,  total  or  partial.^  In  the  thirteen  seances, 
sixty-seven  closed  envelopes  or  packets  are  recorded  to  have 
been  offered  to  Alexis  for  trial.  In  twenty-two  cases  he  failed 
to  decipher  the  contents  ;  in  forty-five  cases  he  succeeded.3 

'  It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out  that  condensation  can  only  be 
achieved  by  omission  of  detail.  Dr.  Lee  was,  no  doubt,  honest,  and 
intended  to  omit  only  details  which  were  irrelevant.  But,  in  dealing 
with  matters  of  this  kind,  only  the  expert  can  say  what  is  really 
relevant.  It  is  possible  that  some  of  the  details  omitted  would  have 
given  us  important  clues.  Unluckily,  we  can  only  now  and  then 
check  Lee's  statements.  But  two  or  three  significant  omissions  may 
be  pointed  out.  On  p.  258  he  describes  a  case  of  successful  reading 
twenty  pages  in  advance  in  a  book  presented  by  the  Rev.  F. 
Robertson.  Two  pages  later,  at  the  end  of  the  account,  he  mentions 
incidentally  that  the  first  trial  of  reading,  also  proposed  by  Mr. 
Robertson,  had  been  a  failure. 

In  two  instances  we  have  records  from  other  hands  of  the  seances 
described  by  Lee,  and  we  are  thus  enabled  to  discover  other  omissions. 

Thus  (p.  258)  Lee  writes  :  "  Sir  R G then  gave  a  morocco  case, 

which  Alexis  said  contained,"  &c.  In  an  account  of  the  same  sitting 
by  Mr.  Parsons,  of  Brighton  {Zoist,  vol.  vii.  pp.  92-93),  the  incident  is 
thus  described  :  "  Sir.  R.  Grant  presented  a  packet  containing  a 
portrait,  which  had  been  before  presented  by  a  sceptic,  and  Alexis 
could  then  make  nothing  of  it.  Marcillet  then  proposed  that  the 
packet  should  be  put  into  the  hands  of  any  other  gentleman  who 
was  not  a  sceptic,  and  that  the  contents  should  be  exhibited  to  that 
other  person  in  another  room.  Sir.  R.  Grant  volunteered,  and  this  was 
done,"  &c.  In  another  case  (p.  269)  Lee  simply  says  that  the  right 
name — Blake — was  "at  length"  written,  but  a  journalist  who 
reported  the  same  seance  states  that  Alexis  wrote  "  one  letter  after 
another  until  he  made  out  the  word" — an  important   detail  (p.  271). 

"  Op.  cit.,  p.  278,  7iote. 

3  In  the  forty-five  successful  cases  are  included  a  few  cases  of  partial 
but  decisive  success — e.g.,  in  one  such  case  Alexis  wrote  "  Mort,"  but 
was  unable  to  continue  ;  the  word  was  "  Mortemar."  The  twenty- 
two  "failures"  are  made  up  as  follows:  In  one  case  Alexis  refused  to 
accept  the  packet  because  it  was  presented  by  a  sceptic  (the  Rev.  F. 
Robertson,  possibly  the  celebrated  divine  of  that  name).  In  eight 
cases  he  failed  to  give  any  indication  at  all  of  the  nature  of  the 
contents ;  in  three  cases  he  gave  descriptions  which  were  incorrect. 
In  seven  cases  the  description  was  partly  correct,  but  not  sufficiently 


i8o     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  the  failures  may  have  been 
more  numerous  than  are  set  down,  because  Lee  is  more 
likely  to  have  forgotten  a  failure  than  a  success.  The 
successes  must  also  be  to  some  extent  discounted,  because 
though  Lee  claims  to  have  recorded  all  the  "  total  or  partial 
failures,"  he  states  that  he  did  not  record  "  the  erroneous 
impressions,  which,  owing  to  the  variety  of  tests  proposed, 
often  pass  through  the  mind  of  a  somnambulist,  to  which 
he  may  give  utterance  before  definitely  deciding  upon  the 
test  before  him."  ^  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  we  have 
not  a  full  record  of  all  the  remarks  made,  both  by  Alexis 
and  his  interlocutors.  A  comjilete  record  would  have  great 
value.  But  in  view  of  the  nature  of  some  of  the  tests 
proposed,  and  the  nature  of  the  replies  given,  the  record, 
even  as  it  stands,  seems  to  point  to  the  exercise  of  some 
supernormal  faculty.  Alexis,  as  said,  attached  considerable 
importance  to  the  packet  being  presented  by  a  "  s)mpathetic  " 
person  ;  the  questioner  was  generally  asked  to  give  his  hand 
to  Alexis,  or  even  to  sit  by  him  hand  in  hand  for  a  time. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  sentences  read  in  the  book,  Alexis 
seems  to  have  preferred  to  write  or  draw  his  answer. 
Among  the  words  correctly  written  were  Paris,  pensee, 
Alexis,  incrcdulc,  amie,   Montespau,    Verona,  Edward  Street. 

so  to  justify  the  attempt  being  counted  as  successful.  In  three  cases 
sufficient  details  are  not  given  to  enable  us  to  determine  the  exact 
nature  of  the  failure.  Amongst  the  "  failures "  were  two  packets 
containing  bank-notes.  In  one  case  Alexis  gave  wrong  indications  ; 
in  the  other  the  propounder  of  the  test  refused  to  say  whether  the 
word  written  by  Alexis  was  right  or  wrong. 

'  Of.  ciL,  p.  278,  note.  Of  course,  these  erroneous  impressions, 
when  uttered  aloud,  may  have  served  to  elicit  important  information 
from  the  bystanders,  if  they  were  not  on  their  guard.  Forbes  and 
Carpenter  both  point  out  the  possibility,  and  are  inclined  thus  to 
explain  the  partial  successes  witnessed  by  them.  Bui  Lee  elsewhere 
(p.  267)  expressly  says  that  the  parties  only  replied  "  No  "  if  Alexis  was 
wrong,  and  gave  him  no  other  assistance.  It  is  not  clear,  however, 
that  this  statement  is  intended  to  apply  to  the  whole  series  of  seances 
recorded  by  him.  But  I  cannot  myself  understand  how  any  amount  of 
"fishing"  or  "muscle-reading"  could  account  for  some  of  the  results 
recorded. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  i8i 

On  January  23rd  a  man  handed  Alexis  an  envelope  con- 
taining the  word  "clairvoyance,"  which  was  correctly  read. 
On  reflection,  it  occurred  to  him  that  Alexis  might  have  read 
the  word  through  the  envelope,  and  on  the  following  day  he 
presented  a  second  packet,  consisting  of  several  envelopes 
one  inside  the  other,  to  preclude  all  possibility  of  the  words 
being  read  by  ordinary  vision.  Alexis  wrote  "  Louis 
Napoleon,"  which  was  correct. 

Sometimes  the  word  was  written  slowly,  with  hesitation, 
or  letter  by  letter,  but  in  two  cases  Lee  mentions  that  the 
words  were  written  spasmodically,  or  as  if  by  a  sudden 
inspiration. 

As  a  variant  of  the  experiments  with  sealed  packets 
Alexis  was  frequently  given  a  letter,  or  a  lock  of  hair,  or 
a  trinket,  and  asked  to  describe  the  person  to  whom  it 
belonged.  The  descriptions  were  acknowledged  to  be 
wonderfully  accurate,  even  to  such  personal  peculiarities 
as  the  loss  of  an  eye  or  a  limb.  In  these  experiments 
also,  when  asked  for  a  proper  name  or  a  date,  Alexis 
generally  took  a  pencil  in  his  hand  and  wrote.  One  trial 
of  this  kind,  as  described  by  Houdin,  may  be  given. 
Houdin  handed  Alexis  a  letter,  which  the  latter  placed 
successively  on  his  stomach  and  the  top  of  his  head.  He 
then  gave  a  fairly  accurate  description  of  the  writer  and 
his  surroundings.     Houdin  then  asked — 

"Where  does  the  letter  come  from?"  ? 

Alexis :  "  From ." 

"  Ah  ! "  says  R.  Houdin ;  "  and  the  postmark.  I  never  thought  of 
that.  But  since  you  see  the  house,  can  you  tell  me  in  what  street 
it  stands  ?" 

Alexis:  "Wait.  Give  me  a  pencil."  After  five  minutes'  reflection 
he  wrote  rapidly,  "  Rue  d'A ,  Number  ." 

"  This  is  too  much,"  says  R.  Houdin.  "  It  is  beyond  me.  I  don't 
want  any  more." 

It  is  not  stated  whether  the  address  was  contained  in 
the  letter  itself  But  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  Alexis 
could,  in  Houdin's  presence,  have  opened  the  letter  and  read 
the  address  undetected. 


i82     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

Generally,  towards  the  end  of  the  sitting,  Alexis  would 
be  asked  by  one  of  those  present  to  describe  his  house. 
Thus,  to  quote  one  such  case,  Mr.  W.  asked  for  the 
description  of  a  house.     Alexis  said — 

" '  It  was  sixty  leagues  to  the  right  of  London,  about  a  league  from 
a  railroad  ;  the  sea  on  one  side,  and  sands  along  the  shore  ;  the 
house  very  old  ;  of  stone ;  an  inscription  engraved  on  it  in  stone,  in 
Latin  ;  five  words ;  five  letters  in  the  second  word.'  At  length,  after 
some  effort,  Alexis,  having  been  correct  in  the  former  particulars, 
wrote  the  words  '  Non  nobis,  Domine,"  in  characters  simii.ir  to  the 
inscription.  He  tried  hard  at  the  other  words,  but  seemed  confused, 
which  was  accounted  for  on  tiie  words  being  stated.  The  two  first 
were  repeated  tiius  :  '  N'on  n^bis,  Domine,  non  nobis.'  He  furtiier 
said  that  'the  house  was  two  storeys  higli  ;  that  one  portion  was  much 
newer  than  the  other  ;  that  there  was  a  servant  living  in  the  stables, 
about  forty  years  old,  not  good-looking '  (he  is  much  marked  with  the 
sm;iIl-pox)  ;  '  a  large  dining-room  in  the  house,  with  three  windows, 
they  look  out  on  trees  on  either  side ;  there  are  two  wells  in  the 
grounds  ;  the  oldest  well  contains  good  water  ;  the  newer  one  is  dry, 
or  has  at  times  brackish  or  rain-water.  In  the  park,  near  the  entrance, 
a  pillar  or  column,  witii  something  on  the  top  ;  a  transverse  cross-bar,' 
of  which  he  drew  a  representation.  (The  object  was,  as  I  understood, 
a  high  post  witii  a  frame  to  hold  a  slate  for  marking  the  points  at 
arcliery  shooting.)     'There  was  no  game  in  the  park."     All  correct."' 

This  is  only  one  of  many  similar  cases  in  Dr.  Lee's  book. 
Other  records  of  the  same  kind  at  first  hand  are  contributed 
to  the  pages  of  the  Medical  Times,  the  Zoist,  and  other 
periodicals.  Thus  Dr.  Costello  was  told  that  he  had  on  the 
previous  day  operated  for  the  stone,  and  a  description  of  the 
room,  &c.,  was  given.^  Lord  FitzClarence  was  given  a  de- 
scription of  an  excursion  taken  two  days  previously  ;  the 
account  was  correct  in  the  minutest  details,  down  even  to 
the  nature  of  his  lunch  at  a  pdtisserie.'i  The  Rev.  C.  H. 
Townshend  and  a  brother  clergyman,  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Sims, 
received  full  descriptions  of  their  houses,  including  the  sub- 
jects of  the  pictures  on  their  walls.  In  Townshend's  case  the 
detail  was  added  that  one  picture,  the  subject  of  which  was 

'  Lee,  op.  cil.,  pp.  268-269. 

■  Medical  Times,  vol.  x.  p.  356  Quly,  1844). 

>  Zoist,  vol.  vi.  p.  418. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  183 

fully  described,  was  painted  on  stone,  and  that  the  stone  was 
bulged  {bombe)  at  the  back.^ 

I  have  chosen  the  case  reported  by  Dr.  Lee  even  though 
it  lacks  Mr.  W.'s  corroboration,  because  of  the  significant 
detail  of  the  writing  and  drawing. 

In  a  few  cases  Alexis  is  reported  to  have  given  information 
about  scenes  and  events  at  a  distance  unknown  to  his  interlo- 
cutor. De  Mirville  records  an  instance  of  this  at  Houdin's 
interview.  Townshend  relates  a  case  of  the  kind  in  his  own 
experience — the  clairvoyant,  however,  being  Adolphe  Didier, 
brother  of  Alexis.^  Several  other  cases  are  given,  but  not 
at  first  hand,  in  the  Zoist.  Dr.  Lee  gives  one  illustration 
which  is  worth  quoting.  In  November,  1848,  some  atrocious 
murders  had  been  committed  in  Norfolk  by  a  man  called 
Rush.  The  investigation  was  still  proceeding  in  January, 
1849,  and  somebody  suggested  to  the  coroner  that  he 
should  consult  Alexis.  Without  much  expectation  of  any 
result,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Lee,  proposing  as  a  preliminary 
test  that  Alexis  should  be  asked  to  state  the  contents  of  a 
tin  box  in  the  coroner's  office.  The  letter  was  handed 
by  Dr.  Lee — himself,  of  course,  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
object  to  be  described — to  Alexis,  who  gave,  to  quote  Lee's 
report,  "a  description  of  the  coroner,  his  residence  and 
the  office  in  his  house,  the  tin  box  which  had  been  pro- 
posed as  a  test,  which  he  said  he  saw  confusedly — but 
there  was  in  it  some  blue  cloth  or  stuff  and  flannel."  In 
his  answer,  which  Lee  unfortunately  does  not  give  in  full, 
the  coroner  stated  that  "  in  some  particulars,  both  as 
regarded  himself  and  his  office,  the  description  was  accurate,'' 
and  also  that  the  box  contained  a  hat  "  lined  with  purple 
or  bluish  cloth  and  south-wester  lined  with  flannel."  3 

'  Townshend's  case  is  given  in  the  Zoist,  vol.  ix.  p.  403,  Sims's  in  vol. 
ii.  p.  517.  The  latter  case  is  in  one  respect  the  more  striking  of  the 
two.  Townshend  was  well  known  as  a  writer  on  Mesmerism,  and  the 
facts  in  his  case  may  conceivably  have  been  got  up  beforehand.  But 
Sims  tells  us  that  he  had  no  interest  in  the  subject  until  the  day  before 
the  meeting,  which  took  place  in  Paris,  the  house  described  being  in 
England. 

»  Zoht,  vol.  xi.  p.  75.  3  Animal  Magnetism,  p.  257. 


184     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

The  literature  of  the  time  teems  with  instances  of  similai 
clairvoyance.  Of  course  in  most  cases  fraud  is  the  first 
explanation  to  be  considered,  and  exaggeration  on  the  part 
of  the  recorder  the  second.  That  fraud  was  frequently  prac- 
tised we  know  on  the  testimony  of  Elliotson  himself.  In 
his  valedictory  address  in  the  last  number  of  i\\c  Zoist^  he 
writes:  "  Examples  of  clairvoyance  abound,  .  .  .  but  though 
the  phenomenon  appears  unquestionable  we  well  know  that 
gross  imposition  is  hourly  practised  in  regard  to  it  both 
by  professional  clairvoyants  and  private  individuals  in- 
fluenced by  vanity  or  wickedness.  .  .  .  The  assertions 
of  a  clairvoyant  should  be  believed  .  .  .  (only  when) 
they  are  free  from  the  possibility  of  lucky  guesses 
or  trickery,  and  are  verified  by  ascertainment  of  the 
facts." 

A  case  recorded  by  Miss  Martineau  furnishes  an  instruc- 
tive illustration  of  spurious  clairvoyance.  In  her  Letters  on 
Mesmerism  she  relates  that  a  vague  report  had  come  on 
Sunday,  October  13,  1844,  to  the  house  at  Tynemouth, 
where  she  was  then  lodging,  that  the  boat  in  which  a 
cousin  of  her  clairvoyant  subject,  Jane,  was  sailing  had 
been  wrecked.  On  the  Tuesday  evening  no  authentic  news 
as  to  the  fate  of  the  sailors  had,  according  to  Miss  Martineau, 
reached  the  house  up  till  8  p.m.  At  that  hour  a  s(fance 
was  held,  and  the  entranced  Jane  gave  the  joyful  news 
that  all  on  board  were  saved,  except  one  boy,  and  that 
the  boat  which  rescued  them  was  a  foreign  one.  At  the 
very  hour,  Miss  Martineau  adds,  when  this  intelligence  was 
being  delivered  in  her  sitting-room,  the  sailor's  mother,  who 
had  come  in  after  the  commencement  of  the  seance,  and 
without  the  knowledge  of  Miss  Martineau  and  her  circle, 
was  telling  the  same  story  in  the  kitchen,  two  floors  below. 
Forbes  shows,  on  the  evidence  of  a  local  doctor  and  of 
one  of  the  witnesses  at  the  seance,  that  the  good  news 
was  actually  known  in  the  house  three  hours  before  the 
sitting,  and  that  the  lady  mesmerist  had  apparently 
conspired  with  the  clairvoyant  Jane  to  deceive  her  hostess. 
'  Vol.  xiii.  p.  443. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  185 

Miss  Martineau's  deafness  no  doubt  facilitated  the  de- 
ception.i 

In  the  case  of  the  descriptions  of  houses  of  well-known 
persons  it  is  of  course  in  many  cases  conceivable  that  the 
facts  given  could  have  been  acquired  beforehand  by  gossip 
from  servants  and  so  on.  But  this  explanation  is  much 
less  probable  in  the  case  of  the  chief  private  clairvoyants 
of  the  period,  patients  of  respectable  physicians,  than  in 
the  case  of  a  professional  like  Alexis,  for  the  two  reasons 
already  indicated,  that  Alexis  had  money  to  spend  on 
inquiries,  and  that  he  was  free  within  certain  limits  to 
choose  the  persons  to  whom  he  should  give  information. 
In  many  cases,  moreover,  the  nature  of  the  facts  attested 
seems  to  preclude  fraud,  though  the  reports  are  still  too 
often  open  to  the  suspicion  of  exaggeration  or  misde- 
scription. 

Sometimes,  in  order  to  convince  sceptical  inquirers,  the 
faculty  was  tested  by  direct  experiment.  Thus  Gregory 
was  present  when  a  small  boy  of  nine  was  thrown  into  a 
trance  in  the  house  of  his  master.  Dr.  Schmitz,  Rector  of  the 
High  School  in  Edinburgh.  At  Gregory's  suggestion  the 
Rector  and  his  son  retired  to  another  room  and  there  moved 
about,  gesticulated  with  their  arms  and  performed  grotesque 
antics,  all  of  which  were  faithfully  described  by  the  sleeping 
boy.2  W.  Topham,  a  barrister,  the  mesmerist  who  had 
induced  anaesthesia  in  Wombell's  case  (see  Chapter  VII.), 
relates  that  he  requested  a  friend,  De  Gex,  to  go  upstairs  to 
the  room  above  and  hold  up  the  window  curtain  in  order  to 
test  his  subject's  clairvoyance.  The  clairvoyant  described 
De  Gex  as  entering  the  room  and  taking  hold  of  Topham's 

'  Illusiraiions  of  Modern  Mesmerism  (1845),  pp.  99-101.  In  her 
Autobiography  (edition  of  1877,  vol.  ii.  p.  198)  Miss  Martineau,  refer- 
ring to  Forbes's  action  in  the  matter,  states  that  she  holds  a  legal 
declaration  which  "  establishes  the  main  fact  on  which  the  somnam- 
bule's  story  of  shipwreck  was  attempted  to  be  overthrown."  But  she 
gives  no  particulars,  nor  attempts  to  refute  Dr-  Forbes's  exposure  in 
detail. 

"  Letters  on  Animal  Magnetism,  by  William  Gregory,  M.D.,  F.R.S.E., 
Professor  of  Chemistry  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  1851,  p.  424. 


i86     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

father  by  the  shoulder — which,  in  fact,  was  what  De  Gex  had 
done,  instead  of  carrying  out  the  action  originally  suggested.' 
Another  well-known  mesmerist  of  the  period,  T.  B.  Brindley, 
carried  out  several  experiments  of  this  k-ind.  In  concert  with 
a  sceptical  friend  he  rearranged  the  furniture  of  his  sitting- 
room  and  tied  the  cat  on  a  chair.  Then,  locking  the  door, 
he  went  off  straightway  to  the  clairvoyant's  house,  who  as 
soon  as  she  was  entranced  reproached  him  for  his  treatment 
of  the  cat.2  Lord  Ducie,  at  the  opening  of  the  Bristol 
Mesmeric  Institute,  described  how  a  clairvoyant  had  given 
him  a  circumstantial  inventory  of  his  country  house  and  an 
adjacent  farm.3  Professor  de  Morgan,  immediately  after  his 
return  home,  received  from  a  little  girl,  a  patient  of  Mrs.  de 
Morgan's,  a  precise  description  of  the  manner  in  which  he 
had  spent  his  evening  at  a  friend's  house.4  The  Hon. 
Caroline  Boyle,  visiting  a  London  surgeon,  W.  Hands, 
received  from  his  somnambulic  patient,  Ellen  Dawson,  a 
description  accurate  to  the  minutest  detail  of  her  house  and 
surroundings  in  Somersetshire,  also  of  a  church  in  Rouen 
which  she  had  visited  the  previous  year  and  of  the  robes  and 
sacred  vessels  in  the  sacristy  to  which  she  had  been  admitted 
by  the  priest.s 

But  it  would  be  tedious  to  continue  the  enumeration  of  the 
many  striking  illustrations  of  this  faculty  given  in  the  pages 
of  the  Zoist  and  by  Gregory,  Haddock,^  and  other  writers  of 
the  period.  It  is  true  that  the  evidence  is  not  set  forth  with 
the  particularity  which  we  are  entitled  to  demand  of  those 
who  recount  facts  so  new  and  strange.  Contemporary  notes, 
if  made,  are  rarely  cited,  and  the  recorder  seldom  thinks  it 
necessary  to  confirm  his  own  version  by  adducing  the  testi- 
mony of  other  witnesses.  But  even  if  we  felt  ourselves 
justified  in  rejecting  the  testimony  of  so  many  trustworthy 
witnesses  standing  alone,  the  more  recent  observations  made 

'  Zoist,  vol.  V.  p.  128. 

'  Ibid.,  ii.  p.  139.     See  also  p.  138  and  vol.  i.  p.  467. 

3  Ibid.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  154,  155. 

<  Memoirs  of  Augustus  de  Morgan,  1882,  pp.  206-208. 

s  Zoist,  vol.  iii.  p.  236. 

'  Somnolism  and  Psycheism,  by  J.  W.  Haddock,  M.D.  (2nd  ed.,  1851). 


CLAIRVOYANCE  187 

by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  add  powerful  confirma- 
tion to  these  earlier  records. 

The  excuse  for  the  somewhat  slovenly  fashion  in  which 
many  of  the  records  are  presented  is,  no  doubt,  that  to  the 
observer  of  fifty  years  ago  the  possession  by  many  somnam- 
bules  of  a  faculty  which  enabled  them  to  read  the  thoughts 
of  those  present  seemed  too  well  established  to  need  further 
proof.  When  the  facts  seemed  to  point  to  a  faculty  of  a 
more  transcendent  kind — the  actual  seeing  of  events  at  a 
distance — the  evidence  is  in  most  cases  more  complete. 
Haddock  sets  forth  in  detail,  with  corroborative  evidence, 
three  cases  in  which  a  somnambulic  patient  of  his,  Emma, 
was  instrumental  in  recovering  lost  property.  The  cashier  of 
a  business  firm  in  Bolton  had  to  pay  into  the  local  bank  a 
sum  of  ^^650.  Some  weeks  later,  on  making  up  the  accounts 
it  was  found  that  the  bank  had  no  entry  of  the  payment. 
Fruitless  search  was  made  at  the  bank,  and  finally  as  a  last 
resource  the  cashier  came  with  his  principal  to  consult  the 
clairvoyant,  who,  after  correctly  describing  the  missing  papers 
— two  bank-notes  and  a  bill — claimed  to  see  them  in  an 
envelope  with  a  number  of  other  papers  in  a  private  room  at 
the  bank.  Renewed  search  was  made,  and  the  missing  notes 
and  bill  were  actually  discovered,  having  been  inadvertently 
set  on  one  side  amongst  a  mass  of  unimportant  papers.^ 
In  the  two  other  cases  the  money  had  been  stolen;  Emma 
correctly  indicated  the  thief,  and  the  money  was  restored. 2 
A  valuable  brooch  was  recovered  through  the  agency  of 
another  clairvoyant,  Ellen  Dawson.  In  this  case  also  the 
thief  confessed,  and  it  was  proved  that  the  clairvoyant  had 
been  correct  in  her  statement  of  some  circumstances  attend- 
ing the  theft.3     It  is,  of  course,  possible  in  each  of  these 

'  Bollon  Chronicle,  September  8,  1849. 

•  Somnolism  and  Psycheism,  pp.  1 12-128.  In  one  case  the  person 
indicated  confessed ;  in  the  other  case  he  denied  tlie  crime  ;  but  tiie 
stolen  money  was  thrown  into  the  house  next  day  by  an  unseen  hand. 
See  Zoist,  vii.  p.  323,  for  corroborative  evidence  in  one  case. 

3  Zoist,  vii.  pp.  95-101.  See  also  the  Belle  Assemblee,  vol.  xxii..  No.  2, 
pp.  108,  109. 


i88     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

cases  that  the  clairvoyant  in  indicating  the  thief  was  guided 
by  latent  suspicions  on  the  part  of  those  who  consulted  her. 
But  in  two  of  the  cases  details  are  given,  afterwards  verified 
by  the  confession  of  the  culprit,  which  could  not  have  been 
known  beforehand.  If  the  clairvoyant's  vision  was  inspired 
by  thought-transference,  it  would  seem  that  we  must  then 
apparently  trace  the  originating  impulse  to  the  mind  of  the 
thief  In  another  case  the  clairvoyant  indicated,  after  a 
fruitless  search  had  been  made  for  nearly  three  weeks,  where 
the  body  of  a  drowned  girl  would  be  found.'  And  there 
are  a  few  other  cases  reported  at  this  time  resembling  some 
of  the  incidents  recorded  in  connection  with  the  modern 
clairvoyant,  Mrs.  Piper,  which  compel  us  at  least  to  enlarge 
the  meaning  of  thought-transference.  Thus,  G.  Toulmin, 
the  conductor  of  the  Bolton  Chronicle,  consulted  Haddock's 
clairvoyant,  Emma,  as  to  a  friend,  named  Willey,  who  had 
gone  to  California.  Full  notes  of  the  sittings  were  taken 
and  printed  immediately.  Emma  gave  a  description  of  the 
doings  and  sufferings  not  only  of  Willey,  but  of  his  com- 
panion Morgan.  Amongst  other  details  which  could  not 
have  been  derived  from  the  minds  of  those  present,  and 
which  were  verified  by  subsequent  correspondence,  she  saw 
Willey  constantly  rubbing  his  arms  (for  rheumatism),  and 
she  expressed  considerable  alarm  at  seeing  him  climb  the 
rigging — he  had,  in  fact,  done  so  on  one  occasion  to  help  in 
furling  the  sails  ;  she  saw  that  Morgan  had  fallen  overboard 
into  the  water  and  had  had  a  fever,  and  in  course  of  the 
fever  had  a  vision  of  his  wife.  The  whole  record,  which  is 
too  long  to  be  reproduced  here,  is  worth  studying  as  a  very 
curious  illustration  of  the  workings  of  a  clairvoyant's  mind.^ 
In  the  following  case,  again,  the  record  of  which,  it  will  be 

'  Huddersjield  and  Holmfirih  Examiner,  January  13,  1855,  and  Zoist, 
vol.  xiii.  p.  54. 

'  The  contemporary  notes  are  reprinted  by  Haddock  in  his  Somnolism 
and  Psycheistu,  pp.  132-139.  Willey  himself  on  his  return  to  England 
at  a  personal  interview  assured  Haddock  of  the  accuracy  of  the  facts; 
unfortunately,  Haddock  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  procure  a  written 
attestation,  but  contented  himself  with  recording  the  fact. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  189 

seen,  is  based  on  letters  written  immediately  after  the  event, 
the  facts  related  could  clearly  not  have  been  derived  from 
the  minds  of  those  present : — 

Professor  Gregory  describes  a  visit  paid  by  him  to  a  friend  in  a 
town  about  thirty  miles  from  Edinburgh  six  or  seven  months  previously. 
He  there  met  a  lady  who  had  been  twice  mesmerised  by  his  friend  and 
who  exhibited  considerable  clairvoyant  powers.  At  Gregory's  request, 
this  lady — who  was  personally  unknown  to  him — began  by  giving  him 
a  minute  description  of  his  own  house  in  Edinburgh,  and  then  of  his 
brother's  house,  near  the  same  city,  and  his  brother's  occupation  at 
the  moment.  The  details  given  proved  on  inquiry  to  be  correct. 
Gregory  then  continues  : — 

"  I  now  asked  her  to  go  to  Greenock,  forty  or  fifty  miles  from 
where  we  were  (Edinburgh  was  nearly  thirty  miles  distant),  and  to 
visit  my  son,  who  resides  there  with  a  friend.  She  soon  found  him, 
and  described  him  accurately,  being  much  interested  in  the  boy, 
whom  she  had  never  seen  nor  heard  of.  She  saw  him,  she  said,  play- 
ing in  a  field  outside  of  a  small  garden  in  which  stood  the  cottage,  at 
some  distance  from  the  town,  on  a  rising  ground.  He  was  playing 
with  a  dog.  I  knew  there  was  a  dog,  but  had  no  idea  of  what  kind, 
so  I  asked  her.  She  said  it  was  a  large  but  young  Newfoundland, 
black,  with  one  or  two  white  spots.  It  was  very  fond  of  the  boy  and 
played  with  him,  'Oh,'  she  cried  suddenly,  'it  has  jumped  up  and 
knocked  off  his  cap.'  She  saw  in  the  garden  a  gentleman  reading  a 
book  and  looking  on.  He  was  not  old,  but  had  white  hair,  while  his 
eyebrows  and  whiskers  were  black.  She  took  him  for  a  clergyman, 
but  said  he  was  not  of  the  EstabHshed  Church,  nor  Episcopalian,  but  a 
Presbyterian  Dissenter.  (He  is,  in  fact,  a  clergyman  of  the  highly 
respectable  Cameronian  body,  who,  as  is  well  known,  are  Presby- 
terians, and  adhere  to  the  Covenant.)  Being  asked  to  enter  the 
cottage,  she  did  so,  and  described  the  sitting-room.  In  the  kitchen 
she  saw  a  young  maidservant  preparing  dinner,  for  which  meal  a 
leg  of  mutton  was  roasting  at  the  fire,  yet  not  quite  ready.  She  also 
saw  another  elderly  female.  On  looking  again  for  the  boy,  she  saw 
him  playing  with  the  dog  in  front  of  the  door,  while  the  gentleman 
stood  in  the  porch  and  looked  on.  Then  she  saw  the  boy  run  upstairs 
to  the  kitchen,  which  she  observed  with  surprise  was  on  the  upper 
floor  of  the  cottage  (which  it  is),  and  receive  something  to  eat  from 
the  servant,  she  thought  a  potato. 

"  I  immediately  wrote  all  these  details  down  and  sent  them  to  the 
gentleman,  whose  answer  assured  me  that  all,  down  to  the  minutest, 
were  exact,  save  that  the  boy  did  not  get  a  potato  but  a  small  biscuit 
from  the  cook.  The  dog  was  what  she  described ;  it  did  knock  off 
the  boy's  cap  at  the  time  and  in  the  place  mentioned  ;  he  himself  was 
in  the  garden  with  a  book  looking  on ;    there  was  a  leg  of  mutton 


iQO    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

roasting  and  not  quite  ready ;  tliere  was  an  elderly  female  in  the 
kitchen  at  that  time,  although  not  of  the  household.  Every  one  of 
wliich  facts  was  entirely  unknown  to  me,  and  could  not,  therefore,  have 
been  perceived  by  thouglit-rcading,  although,  had  lliey  been  so,  as  I 
have  already  stated,  this  would  not  have  been  a  less  wonderful,  but 
only  a  different  phenomenon. 

"  The  above  case  I  regard  as  a  very  satisfactory  one,  inasmuch  as  I 
did  not  know  beforehand  that  I  was  to  try  any  experiments  at  all,  and 
had  never  seen  the  lady  before. 

"  William  Gregory.' 

"Dec,  1 85 1." 

The  coincidences  here  are  too  exact  to  be  due  to  chance  ; 
if  the  record  is  accurate,  we  must  look  for  the  explanation  in 
some  action  of  distant  minds  on  the  sensitive  clairvoyant — 
whether  directly  or  mediately  through  Professor  Gregory. 
In  the  records  of  Mrs.  Piper's  trance  utterances  there  are 
many  cases  which  compel  us  to  look  for  a  similar  explanation. 

To  sum  up,  the  so-called  clairvoyance  at  close  quarters,  when 
not  due  to  fraud,  would  seem  to  indicate  extreme  acuteness 
of  vision,  the  result  sometimes  of  training,  sometimes  appa- 
rently of  hypera-^sthesia  in  the  trance.  But  the  manifestations 
of  community  of  sensation  and  of  clairvoyance  at  a  distance, 
so  far  as  they  appear  to  be  genuine,  furnish  some  support  to 
the  h\'pothesis  of  thought-transference. 

But  to  Gregory  and  some  of  his  contemporaries,  as  to  some 
students  in  recent  times,  such  incidents  seemed  to  point  to 
faculties  transcending  the  ordinary  course  of  nature  and  not 
susceptible  of  explanation  in  physical  terms.  Many  of  the 
writers  on  Mesmerism  at  this  period  are  emphatic  in  their 
declaration  that  the  facts  of  clairvoyance  prove  that  the 
soul  can  act  apart  from  and  independently  of  the  bodily 
organism. 

Townshend,  in  particular,  one  of  the  most  critical  writers 
on  the  subject,  employs  the  argument  afterwards  developed 
with  such  force  by  Myers  in  his  Human  Perso7iality. 

"Would  wings,"  he  asks,  "be  folded  in  the  worm  if  they  were  not 
one  day  to  enable  it  to  fly  ?    We  cannot  think  so  poorly  of  creative 


•  Zoi%i,  vol.  ix.  pp.  423,  424. 


CLAIRVOYANCE  191 

wisdom  or  of  thrifty  Nature.  Throughout  her  realms  there  is  no 
mockery  of  unmeaning  displays  of  power ;  and,  if  so,  then  is  Mesmerism 
a  pledge  irrefragable  of  a  future  state  of  existence,  calculated  from  the 
exhibition  of  those  energies  which  are  but  a  promise  here.  " ' 

More  definite  proof  of  a  future  life  was  found  in  the  trance 
revelations  of  certain  clairvoyants.  Cahagnet's  book  had 
been  well  received  by  some  of  the  English  Mesmerists.  In 
the  course  of  the  same  year,  1848,  in  which  the  first  volume 
of  the  Arcanes  appeared,  Haddock's  clairvoyant,  Emma, 
passed  into  trances  of  a  nature  very  similar  to  those  de- 
scribed by  Cahagnet,  and  gave  similar  descriptions  of  angels, 
of  glorified  men  and  women,  and  of  celestial  scenery.^  Both 
Gregory  3  and  Haddock,  if  unprepared  to  accept  these 
revelations  as  unquestionably  authentic,  are  still  less  disposed 
to  dismiss  them  as  mere  random  productions  of  the  ecstatics' 
imagination.  In  subsequent  chapters  we  shall  see  how  these 
marvels  of  clairvoyance  and  these  trance  revelations  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  reception  of  the  gospel  of  modern 
Spiritualism. 

'  Facts  in  Mesmerism,  p.  366. 

^  The  first  of  these  ecstasies  took  place  in  July,  1848.  It  does  not 
appear  whether  Haddock  at  that  date  was  acquainted  with  Cahagnet's 
book,  which  had  been  published  in  Paris  the  preceding  January.  But 
at  any  rate  Emma  was  not,  for  she  was  quite  uneducated  and  could  not, 
of  course,  read  French ;  and  it  is  not  probable  that  Haddock,  a  judi- 
cious observer,  would  have  gone  out  of  his  way  to  talk  to  his  subject 
about  the  book.     Probably  Emma's  ecstasies  originated  independently. 

3  Letters  on  Animal  Magnetism  (1851),  pp.  224-227. 


CHAPTER    X 
SPIRITUALISM   IN   FRANCE 

The  physical  theories  of  Animal  Magnetism  gradually  found  to  be 
inadequate  :  clairvoyance,  prevision,  and  other  faculties  interpreted  as 
pointing  to  a  world  transcending  sense — Views  of  Tardv,  Puysegur, 
Deleuze — The  Exegetical  Society  of  Stockholm  in  1788  held  converse 
with  spirits  through  tiie  mouths  of  entranced  mediums — Their  views 
adopted  by  some  French  Magnetists— Alphonse  Cahagnet  (1847)  and 
his  somnambules  :  their  celestial  visions  :  their  interviews  with  deceased 
persons  :  the  effect  on  Modern  Spiritualism. 

FOR  more  than  two  generations,  as  we  have  seen, 
save  for  the  suggestive  theories  of  Faria  and  Bertrand, 
the  explanations  advanced  by  the  French  Magnetists 
were  based  upon  the  assumption  of  a  fluid  amenable  to 
physical  laws.  But  the  hypothesis  of  an  indifferent  universal 
fluid  was  framed  under  a  very  imperfect  apprehension  of  the 
facts.  It  seems  probable  that  it  was  partly  shaped  under  the 
influence  of  a  reaction  from  the  purely  Spiritualist  view  of 
Gassner,  the  great  healer  who  had  immediately  preceded  Mes- 
mer,  and  that  in  the  famous  Propositions  the  physical  aspect 
was  expressly  emphasised  in  order  to  conciliate  the  rationalist 
temper  of  the  time.  It  would  appear  at  any  rate  from 
Puys^gur's  statement  that  Mesmer's  exposition  of  his  own 
theory  was  designedly  incomplete,  inasmuch  as  it  omitted  the 
essential  human  contribution.  However  that  may  be,  the 
Propositions  were  published  before  the  discovery  of  the 
somnambulic  state,  and  after  that  discovery  the  theory  proved 
clearly  inadequate  to  explain  the  multifarious  phenomena 
which  engaged  the  attention  of  Mesmer's  followers.  Even 
Tardy    de    Montravel,    writing    in    1785,    the     year     after 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   FRANCE  193 

Puysegur's  discovery,  claims  that  Somnambulism  has  revealed 
the  existence  in  man  of  a  sixth  sense,  more  sure  in  its  opera- 
tion and  of  wider  scope  than  the  familiar  five  senses.  And 
though  he  essays  to  explain  clairvoyance  and  prevision  of 
comparatively  remote  pathological  events  on  a  physical  basis, 
as  due  to  this  sixth  sense  interpreting  the  indications  afforded 
by  the  magnetic  fluid,  he  is  constrained  to  admit  that  the 
facts  are  scarcely  reconcilable  with  a  materialistic  explana- 
tion. "If  the  spirituality  of  the  soul  needs  a  fresh  proof, 
magnetic  somnambulism  furnishes  one  such  as  even  the 
most  obstinate  materialist  can  scarcely  refuse  to  recognise."  ^ 
We  have  seen  already  how  Puysegur  was  led  by  his 
personal  experiences  to  modify  the  conception  of  an  all-potent 
fluid  which  he  had  inherited  from  Mesmer,  until  he  came  to 
believe  in  the  soul  as  the  motive  power,  and  was  content  to 
pass  over,  as  of  minor  importance,  the  question  whether  the 
soul  acted  through  a  fluid  or  by  some  other  means.  Again 
writing  in  18 18,  Deleuze  is  forced  to  recognise  that  Mesmer's 
system  has  fallen  into  ruins.  Yet  Deleuze,  like  Tardy,  essays 
a  naturalistic  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  somnam- 
bulism. Up  to  a  certain  point,  indeed,  the  fluid  theory — if  we 
are  content  to  postulate  the  existence  of  an  agent  which 
responds  to  no  objective  test — can  be  stretched  to  explain  the 
phenomena.  If  the  subject  essayed  to  describe  his  own  disease, 
it  was,  the  Fluidist  would  say,  because,  owing  to  the  con- 
centration of  magnetic  fluid  in  the  brain,  he  became  sensitive 
to  special  bodily  sensations  which  passed  unheeded  in  the 
normal  state.  If  the  description  given  was  preposterous,  as 
when  the  somnambule  talked  of  worms  biting  the  heart,  or 
abscesses  discharging  by  impossible  routes,  there  was  no 
need  to  impute  bad  faith.  The  sensation  was  really  felt ;  it 
was  only  the  interpretation  which  was  at  fault ;  and  which  of 
us  would  not  be  at  fault  in  like  case  ?  The  explanation  of 
thought-transference,  again,  presents  no  difficulties. 

"  Dans  Taction   magnetique   ma   pensee  modifie  I'organe  interieur, 
lequel  imprime  un  mouvement  au  principe  que  nous  designons  sous  le 

'  Essai  stir  la  Thioric  du  Somiiambiilisme  Magnetique,  p.  38. 


194    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

nom  de  fluide  magnetique ;  et  ce  fluide  traversant  tous  les  corps, 
parvicnt  directemcnt  &  I'organe  interieur  de  celui  qui  est  au  rapport 
avec  moi.  II  y  produit  immediatement  toutes  les  modifications  qui  ne 
I'auraient  ete  que  par  un  intcrmediaire."  ' 

If  we  substitute  the  hypothetical  ether  for  the  hypothetical 
magnetic  fluid,  we  might  accept  this  statement  at  the  present 
time  as  indicating  the  general  lines  on  which  a  physical  ex- 
planation must  probably  be  sought.  The  phenomenon,  or 
rather  pseudo-phenomenon,  of  seeing  without  eyes  presented, 
however,  greater  difficulties.  In  Petetin's  experiments  the 
card  or  other  object  appears  to  have  been  placed  in  almost  im- 
mediate contact  with  the  patient's  body  ;  and  it  was  possible 
therefore  to  explain  the  "  vision  "  as  due  to  the  transfer  of 
sensation  to  the  nerves  of  the  epigastrium  or  other  part  con- 
cerned. But  the  explanation  is  clearly  inapplicable  to  later 
experiments,  in  which  the  object  was  frequently  placed  at 
some  distance  from  the  part  of  the  body  assumed  to  exercise 
the  faculty  of  vision.  In  most  of  Petetin's  trials  a  sensitive 
surface  was  all  that  was  required.  But  if  the  later  results 
are  to  be  explained  in  terms  of  ordinary  physiology,  where  are 
we  to  find  the  machinery  for  focussing  the  divergent  rays 
proceeding  from  the  object  ?  The  term  "  transference  of  sen- 
sation "  becomes  clearly  inapplicable  here  ;  and  it  is  noticeable 
that  after  Petetin's  time  the  phrase  "  vision  without  the  aid  of 
the  eyes"  seems  to  have  been  preferred.  It  was  manifesta- 
tions of  this  class  which  apparently  led  Georget  to  renounce 
his  materialism  and  to  proclaim  his  belief  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul. 

Prevision,  so  far  as  it  related  only  to  events  within  the 
seer's  organism,  could,  as  already  shown,  be  explained  as  an 
instinct,  or  prcsscnsation,  on  the  assumption  that  the  per- 
ceptions of  organic  processes  and  the  power  of  drawing 
correct  inference  are  alike  heightened  in  the  magnetic  trance. 
It  is  so  that  Tardy,  Puysegur,  and  Deleuze  explain  the 
phenomena.  It  was  so,  as  we  have  seen  in  a  previous 
chapter,  that  Bertrand  also  essayed  to  explain  them  until  he 
hit  upon  the  true  interpretation  of  the  facts.  But  the  power 
■  Deleuz*  in  Bibliotheque  du  Magnetisme  animal,  vol.  v.  p.  36. 


SPIRITUALISM    IN   FRANCE  195 

of  prevision  was  alleged  occasionally  to  be  concerned  with 
events  outside  the  subject's  organism  ;  and  of  such  predictions 
the  most  elastic  fluid  could  scarcely  render  an  adequate  ex- 
planation. Clairvoyance  at  a  distance,  a  phenomenon  which, 
whatever  its  explanation,  cannot,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to 
show,  be  summarily  dismissed  as  the  product  of  fraud  or 
iilusion,  seems  hardly  to  have  been  recognised  in  France 
during  the  early  years  of  Magnetism.  One  or  two  instances 
are,  however,  recorded  by  the  Strasbourg  Society.  M. 
Mouilleseaux,  a  member  of  that  Society,  relates  that  in 
October,  1785,  a  patient  of  his  in  the  trance  at  Strasbourg  pro- 
fessed to  see  M ,  then  in  Paris.     She  saw  him  lying   in 

bed  with  a  headache,  and  a  handkerchief  bound  round  his 
forehead.  At  a  later  seance  the  somnambule  explained  that 
she  had  seen  a  stream  of  magnetic  fluid  which,  on  following 

it  to  its  source,  she  found  to  proceed  from  M ,  who  was 

earnestly  desiring  to  get  into  rapport  with  the  magnetiser.^ 
Another  typical  case  of  the  same  date  is  recorded  by 
Puysegur.  The  chronicler  is  a  M.  Segrettier,  a  proprietaire 
at  Nantes,  who  does  not,  however,  apparently  write  as  an  eye- 
witness of  what  he  describes.     The  Baron  de  B ,  according 

to  M.  Segrettier,  had  magnetised  his  niece,  and  becoming 
alarmed  at  her  state,  from  which  he  was  unable  to  rouse  her, 
left  the  chateau  and  went  to  Nantes  to  consult  a  physician. 
During  the  whole  of  the  outward  journey  the  niece  followed  his 
movements  and  described  them  to  those  around  her.  The 
Baron  stayed  in  Nantes  overnight  and  returned  with  the 
physician  the  following  day.  His  niece  again  followed  his 
movements  step  by  step.  She  saw  his  companion,  described 
his  dress  and  conversation  ;  gave  a  detailed  account  of  all  the 
incidents  of  the  journey,  dwelling  especially  on  a  dispute, 
which  nearly  came  to  blows,  between  her  uncle  and  a  tall 
man  dressed  in  grey.  Finally,  she  announced  that  they  had 
dismounted  some  distance  from  the  chateau — that  they  were 
in  the  courtyard — on  the  staircase,  and  when  the  doctor 
entered  the  room  alone  she  insisted  that  her  uncle  was  in  the 
next  room,  as  proved  to  be  the  case.^ 

'  Annals  du  Magnelisme  (1816),  vol.  iv.  p.  164. 

'  Puysegur,  Du  Magnetisme  animal,  p  225. 


tgS    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  reported 
at  second  or  third  hand,  we  should  not  be  justified  in  assum- 
ing that  the  facts  are  accurately  stated,  or  that  any  super- 
normal knowledge  was  actually  displayed  by  the  somnam- 
bule.  The  narrative  is  cited  here  as  testifying  to  the  belief, 
amongst  some  of  the  early  Magnetists,  in  a  faculty  which 
later  attracted  considerable  interest,  especially  in  Germany 
and  England,  and  of  which  examples  not  infrequently  occur 
at  the  present  time.  When  not  due  solely  to  the  imagination 
of  the  seer,  the  facts  may  possibly  be  attributed,  as  suggested 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  to  thought-transference  from  the 
person  whose  actions  and  surroundings  are  described. 

Puysegur  realised  the  difficulty  which  the  interpretation  of 
such  facts  presented  on  the  fluidic  hypothesis,  and  in  the 
same  volume  in  which  M.  Segrettier's  letter  appears  he 
explains  that  he  had  withheld  from  publication  for  the 
present  a  journal  containing  many  instances  of  lucidity  for 
fear  of  affording  to  ignorance  and  superstition  "  le  droit  de 
les  interpreter  d'aprcs  les  erreurs  de  leurs  systemes  ou 
I'exageration  de  leurs  idces."  ^  Thirty  years  later,  however, 
the  manifestation  had  become  fairly  common.  Puysegur 
himself  records  a  case  in  Paris  in  1818,2  and  the  periodicals 
of  that  date  contain  several  typical  cases,  mostly,  however, 
quoted  from  German  and  other  foreign  sources.3  Deleuze 
accepts  the  facts  of  clairvoyance  at  a  distance,  comparing  it 
to  the  Scotch  "  Second  Sight,"  and  explains  it  on  the  assump- 
tion that  our  soul  is  in  relation  with  the  whole  material 
world,  through  the  medium  of  a  universal  fluid  infinitely  more 
subtle  than  light.4 

It  is  not  surprising  that,  confronted  by  this  bewildering 
mass  of  phenomena,  the  true  significance  of  which  the  science 

'  op.  cit.,  p.  332. 

'  Bibliothcque  du  Magnetisme  animal,  vol.  vii.  p.  246. 

3  See,  e.g.,  the  long  account  of  Anna  Nillson,  a  patient  of  the  Swedish 
Doctor  Ekman,  who  made  journeys  to  a  distance  to  the  school  where 
her  master's  son  was  employed  and  described  his  dress  and  occu- 
pations, and  so  forth  {Bibliotheque  du  Magnetisme  animal,  vol.  viii. 
p.  190,  &c.). 

«  Bibliotheque,  &c.,  vol.  v.  p.  31. 


SPIRITUALISM    IN   FRANCE  197 

of  that  date  was  scarcely  competent  to  disentangle,  even 
those  Magnetists  who  still  professed  scientific  orthodoxy 
should  feel  that  the  purely  physical  conception  was  too 
narrow.  Deleuze,  even  while  attempting  to  explain  clair- 
voyance at  a  distance  by  the  intermediation  of  the  all-power- 
ful fluid,  thinks  that  the  phenomena  of  somnambulism  prove 
clearly  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  soul,  the  division  between 
the  soul  and  the  body,  between  Man  as  seen  from  within  and 
Man  as  seen  from  without.  He  thinks  they  prove  also  that 
the  soul, 

"  though  it  generally  makes  use  of  the  sense  organs, can  in  certain  states 
receive  ideas  and  sensations  without  the  mediation  of  those  organs.  .  .  . 
This  principle  once  recognised,  the  strongest  argument,  nay,  the  only 
argument,  against  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  destroyed.  I  do  not 
assert  that  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  but  it  materially  strengthens  other  proofs,  by  removing  all 
difficulties.  In  short,  it  is  much  to  have  incontrovertibly  establislied 
that  the  soul  can  feel,  think,  know,  and  reason  without  the  aid  of  the 
bodily  organs  ;  and  that  those  organs,  which  in  its  ordinary  state  it 
uses  as  its  instruments,  often  prove  obstacles  to  the  knowledge  which 
it  can  acquire  by  immediate  apprehension  unstained  by  transmission 
through  the  organs  of  sense."  ' 

If  a  man  gifted  with  such  sobriety  of  judgment  as  Deleuze 
could  write  in  that  strain,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
less  cautious  students  should  see  in  the  magnetic  trance  an 
open  door  into  the  spiritual  world.  Swedenborg  had  taught  his 
disciples  that  in  his  spontaneous  trances  he  had  intercourse 
with  angels  and  spirits,  and  some  fellow-countrymen  of  the 
Swedish  seer  looked  for  and — since  in  this  region  all  who  seek 
shall  find — soon  discovered  in  the  somnambulic  trance 
manifest  proof  of  like  communication.  In  1788  the  Societ6 
Exeg^tique  et  Philanthropique  of  Stockholm  had  some  corre- 
spondence with  the  Society  at  Strasbourg  founded  by 
Puysegur  for  the  study  of  Magnetism  ;  and  in  a  letter  dated 
March  25th  ^  they  explained  that  they  had  for  some  time 
been  receiving  through  the   mouths   of  their   somnambules 

'  Loc,  cit.,  p.  14. 

»  Afterwards  published  in  the  Annates  du  Magnctisme  animal, 
No.  XXV.,  1 8 16. 


198     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

news  of  the  spirit  world  and  of  their  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances recently  deceased.  For  the  assurance  of  the  friends 
at  Strasbourg  they  sent  extracts  from  their  Journals  record- 
ing the  conversations  held.  In  the  presence  of  the  Prince 
Royal,  several  members  of  the  nobility,  and  other  distinguished 
persons,  questions  were  put  to  two  or  three  somnambules. 
The  intelligence  answering  through  the  mouth  of  the  entranced 
woman  professed  in  each  case  to  be  the  spirit  of  a  deceased 
person — in  one  case  the  infant  daughter  of  the  somnambule, 
in  another  case  the  child  of  a  neighbour.  The  spirits  affirmed 
generally  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  taught  by  Swedenborg. 
In  particular  they  explained  that  the  spirits  who  spoke 
through  the  lips  of  entranced  persons  were  not  devils,  but 
cither  good  spirits  or  spirits  of  mixed  character — t.e.^  recently 
deceased  persons  still  in  the  chemin  dc  viilieii,  or  intermediate 
state,  from  which  they  would  ultimately  be  drafted,  according 
to  the  development  of  their  characters,  to  the  Swedenborgian 
heaven  or  hell.  The  spirits  undertook  in  several  cases  to 
prescribe  for  the  diseases,  even  of  persons  not  actually  present 
in  the  room.  Some  of  the  spectators  took  occasion  to  ask 
after  the  welfare  of  their  deceased  friends.  In  reply  the  com- 
municating spirit  stated  that  the  late  King  was  in  a  state  of 
happiness.  The  late  Captain  Sparfvenfeldt  was,  however, 
described  as  "still  floating."  Concerning  the  condition  of 
the  late  Queen  and  the  late  Count  de  Stenbock  no  informa- 
tion could  be  furnished. 

There  is  no  ground  for  attributing  these  so-called  spirit 
communications  to  any  other  cause  than  the  imagination  of 
the  somnambules.  That  they  were  not  so  regarded  by  the 
spectators  is  due  to  several  causes.  In  the  first  place,  there 
is  a  natural  inclination  to  give  credit  to  the  speaker,  especially 
when  he  deals  with  matters  held  sacred  both  by  himself  and 
his  hearers.  Moreover,  it  was  a  very  general  view  amongst 
the  early  students  that  a  person  in  the  state  of  somnambulism 
could  not  but  speak  the  truth.  And  there  is  indeed  no 
reason  to  question  the  good  faith  of  these  early  spirit  mediums. 
Further,  all  the  concomitant  circumstances  must  have  seemed 
to  the  inquirers  of  a  hundred  years  ago  to  endorse  the  claim 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   FRANCE  199 

made.  The  entranced  person  was  in  a  state  obviously  differing 
very  widely  from  either  normal  sleep  or  normal  wakefulness  ; 
in  the  waking  state  she  herself  retained  no  recollection  of  what 
happened  in  the  trance  ;  in  the  trance  she  habitually  spoke  of 
her  waking  self  in  the  third  person,  as  of  some  one  else  ;  the 
intelligence  which  manifested  in  the  trance  possessed  powers 
of  expression  and  intellectual  resources  in  some  directions  far 
greater  than  any  displayed  by  the  waking  subject.  Add  to  this 
that  the  trance  intelligence  habitually  reflected  the  religious 
orthodoxy  of  its  interlocutors ;  that  on  occasion  it  showed 
knowledge  of  their  thoughts  and  intentions  which  could  not 
apparently  have  been  acquired  by  normal  means  ;  that  it 
was,  in  particular,  extraordinarily  skilful  in  diagnosing,  pre- 
scribing for,  and  occasionally  foretelling  the  course  of  diseases 
in  its  own  body  and  others — the  proof  must  have  seemed  to 
the  bystanders  complete. 

But,all  these  considerations  notwithstanding,  the  Spiritualist 
interpretation  found  few  articulate  champions  in  France,  as 
compared  with  its  prevalence  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia. 
We  find  only  scattered  hints  here  and  there  of  the  existence 
of  the  Spiritualist  Magnetiser.  Tardy  de  Montravel  in  1787 
published  a  series  of  letters  controverting  the  view  that  in  the 
trance  the  soul  was  freed  from  its  earthly  bonds,  and  able  to 
soar  into  the  spiritual  world.  In  1793  Keleph  Ben  Nathan 
published  his  Philosophie  divine,  written  from  the  Christian 
standpoint,  in  which,  recognising  the  reality  of  somnambulism, 
he  condemned  the  practice  of  Magnetism  as  being  in  reality 
trafficking  with  evil  spirits — a  view,  it  may  be  said,  held  by 
Roman  Catholic  divines  at  the  present  time.  We  learn  from 
the  writings  of  Deleuze  that  in  the  second  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century  there  were  several  societies  of  Illuminati 
or  Theosophists  in  France,  who  professed  to  heal  by  Divine 
power,  and  to  hold  intercourse  in  some  fashion  with  the  world 
of  spirits  by  means  of  the  trance.  Again,  there  were  pro- 
fessional clairvoyants  in  Paris,  as  in  the  present  day,  who 
were  willing  for  a  suitable  fee  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  the 
other  world  to  their  clients.  One  speaker  at  the  meeting  of 
the  Royal  Academy  of  Medicine  in  February,  1826,  mentioned 


200    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

that  he  had  recently  visited  in  Paris  a  child  who  in  the  trance 
was  sent  by  the  magnetiser  into  Paradise,  and  there  saw  two 
great  prophets,  whose  names  were — Rousseau  and  Voltaire !  * 

Ten  years  later  M.  de  Petriconi,  a  magistrate  at  Calvi, 
wrote  to  the  Burdin  Commission  giving  some  account  of  his 
clairvoyant  experiences.  Three  of  his  subjects,  one  of  them 
at  least  a  man  of  good  social  position,  and  under  circum- 
stances which  made  deception  improbable,  professed  in  tl.c 
trance  to  have  voyaged  to  the  moon.  They  gave  descriptions, 
more  or  less  concordant,  of  what  they  saw  there — rivers,  lakes, 
beautiful  forests,  with  the  trees  larger  and  the  fruits  finer  than 
any  on  earth ;  men  about  three  feet  high,  very  ugly,  with 
faces  shaped  like  snouts,  ill-clothed,  dwelling  in  huts,  and 
living  without  agriculture  on  the  spontaneous  fruits  of  the 
earth.  Petriconi  records  these  and  many  other  details  in 
pure  simplicity,  and  asks  the  Burdin  Commission  to  move 
Government  to  take  up  the  wonderful  discovery.^  Deleuze 
himself,  as  already  shown,  accepted  in  1818  many  of  the 
Spiritualists'  premises,  though  unable  to  agree  with  their 
conclusion.  In  his  later  years  he  appears  to  have  been 
almost  converted  to  the  Spiritualist  interpretation  by  the 
experiences  of  one  Dr.  Billot.3 

The  most  remarkable  case  of  "spirit  communications"  in 
France  occurred,  however,  some  years  later,  on  the  eve  of  the 
outbreak  in  America  of  the  movement  of  Modern  Spiritual- 
ism. Alphonse  Cahagnet  was  a  cabinetmaker  and  restorer 
of  old  furniture  living  in  the  Rue  St.  Denis.  He  practised 
Mesmerism  in  the  first  instance  for  curative  purposes.  But 
one  of  his  early  somnambules,  Bruno,  soon  fell  into  deep 
trances  or  ecstasies  in  which  he  professed  to  sec  the  spirits  of 
his  deceased  friends,  and  on  occasion  to  be  admitted  into 
heaven.  Cahagnet  appears  to  have  had  some  acquaintance 
with  the  works  of  Swedenborg,  and  no  doubt  with  the 
revelations  of  the  German  Spiritualists  of  whom  some  account 

'  Foissac,  op.  cit.,  p.  58. 
»  Hist,  acad.,  pp.  568-571. 

3  Rcchcrches  psycliologiques .  .  .  ou  correspondance  sur  Ic  magnclismc 
vital  cntrc  un  Solitaire  el  M.  Deleuze  (Paris,  1839). 


SPIRITUALISM   IN  FRANCE  201 

is  given  in  the  next  criapter.  It  seems  probable,  therefore, 
that  the  medium's  visions  were  inspired  partly  by  hints  from 
Cahagnet  himself,  partly  by  memories  of  lessons  learnt 
in  childhood,  and  of  pictures  and  images  in  Catholic 
churches. 

Here,  for  instance,  is  an  account  of  a  vision  of  heaven 
vouchsafed  to  Bruno  : — 

"  I  was  in  a  place  without  any  horizon,  illuminated  by  a  superb 
light.  Before  me  was  a  being  who,  I  believe,  was  God,  seated  on  a 
throne  ;  his  head  was  covered  with  a  shining  turban,  his  beard  was 
grey.  /  think  his  arm  was  resting  on  the  arm  of  his  chair.  He  was 
robed  in  crimson  velvet  studded  with  golden  fleurs-de-lis.  His  mien 
was  majestic  ;  he  was  speaking  to  his  ministers,  six  or  seven  in  number. 
I  did  not  count  them.  They  were  all  seated  on  the  steps  of  the 
throne,  and  were  clothed  in  robes  of  the  same  material  and  the  same 
colour  as  the  robe  of  God ;  but  I  do  not  think  there  was  any  gold 
embroidery  on  them.  All  round  them  and  in  the  distance  walked  a 
multitude  of  beings  Oh  !  how  ugly  are  the  men  of  the  earth  in  com- 
parison with  those  beautiful  faces,  those  fair  skins  !  A  gauze-like 
scarf  covered  one  shoulder,  and,  besides  that,  they  had  a  little  skirt 
of  such  transparent  gauze  that  every  limb  was  easily  distinguishable. 
Their  feet  were  shod  with  sandals,  fastened  with  broad  laces 
{cothurnes) ;  but,  oh,  God  !  how  beautiful  it  was  !  I  was  lifted  up  into 
the  air,  I  beheld  the  earth  under  my  feet,  and  all  these  little  men,  so 
proud,  so  vainglorious,  how  ill-favoured  and  poor  they  seemed  to  me 
by  the  side  of  those  divine  beings  around  me  ! "  ' 

At  a  later  sitting  Bruno  was  given  to  understand  that  the 
figure  seated  on  the  throne  was  the  Angel  Gabriel. 

Bruno's  revelations  never  went  beyond  this  stage,  and  the 
experiments  with  him  soon  ceased.  Cahagnet,  however, 
found  other  subjects,  all  of  whom  experienced  similar 
ecstatic  visions,  and  gave  like  descriptions  of  celestial 
scenery.  The  most  remarkable  was  a  young  woman  named 
Adele  Maginot,  who  had  been  a  natural  somnambulist  from 
her  childhood.  She  came  to  Cahagnet  in  the  first  instance 
in  order  that  he  might  cure  her  of  the  liability  to  these 
spontaneous  attacks,  which  were  impairing  her  health, 
Cahagnet  soon  found  that  she  had  remarkable  gifts  for 
diagnosing  and  prescribing  for  disease  in  others,  and  he 
■  Arcanes,  vol,  i.  pp.  18,  19, 


202    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

employed  her  for  a  time  in  that  capacity.  He  notes  that, 
though,  like  himself,  a  humble  member  of  the  working  classes, 
she  gave  her  services  freely  and  took  nothing  in  return.  Her 
ecstatic  visions  took  in  the  first  instance  the  same  direction 
as  those  of  Cahagnet's  other  somnambules.  She  began  by 
seeing  and  conversing  with  deceased  relatives,  and  describing 
the  scenery  of  heaven. 

Cahagnet  seems  to  have  prized  these  curious  visions  as 
authentic  revelations  of  the  spirit  world.  But  for  modern 
students,  and  for  the  more  discerning  of  his  contemporaries, 
the  really  valuable  part  of  his  work  will  be  found  in  the 
later  experiments  with  Adcle  Maginot.  It  soon  appeared 
that  Adele  could  see  not  only  her  own  deceased  relatives, 
but  the  friends  and  relations  of  other  persons  who  came 
to  consult  her.  Naturally  these  other  persons  demanded 
some  proof  that  the  invisible  figure  with  whom  Adcle  pre- 
tended to  hold  converse  was  not  simply  the  creature  of  her 
own  imagination.  To  convince  them  Adele  would  give  a 
description  of  the  dress  of  the  deceased  and  of  the  manner 
of  his  death.  Cahagnet  kept  careful  notes  of  what  was 
said,  and  afterwards  drew  up  an  account  of  the  interview, 
which  he  submitted  to  the  inquirer  for  his  attestation.  These 
accounts  do  not  profess  to  be  verbatim  ;  they  are  obviously 
much  condensed  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  in  many  cases  the 
information  given  by  the  somnambule  might  have  been 
elicited  by  leading  questions,  or  that  the  gestures  and 
manner  of  the  questioner  may  have  given  a  clue  to  the 
answer  expected.  Nevertheless,  the  descriptions  were  in 
some  cases  so  detailed  and  so  exact,  and  the  proportion 
of  successful  seances  seems  to  have  been  so  high,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  suppose  their  correspondence  with  the  facts  can 
entirely  be  accounted  for  by  such  means.  The  inquirers 
were  in  many  cases  persons  of  good  education  and  of  a 
critical  temper.  They  came  by  no  means  disposed  to 
accord  unquestioning  belief  to  the  somnambulic  revelations, 
and  occasionally,  as  will  be  seen,  they  armed  themselves 
beforehand  with  test  questions.  Cahagnet's  good  faith  was 
unquestionable.     The  medium  had  at  any  rate  no  pecuniary 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   FRANCE  203 

motive  for  fraud.  But,  in  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the 
most  ingenious  fraud  could  explain  the  results.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  typical  case  : — 

"No.  129.'  M.  Petiet  asks  for  M.  Jerome  Petiet.  Adele  sees  a  younf^ 
man,  about  twenty-four  or  twenty-six  years  of  age  (he  was  thirty)  ;  not 
so  tall  as  his  brotlier  now  present ;  auburn  hair,  rather  long,  open  fore- 
head ;  arched  and  very  pronounced  eyebrows ;  brown  and  rather 
sunken  eyes ;  nose  rather  long,  pretty  well  formed  ;  complexion  fresh  ; 
skin  very  white  and  delicate  ;  medium-sized,  round,  and  dimpled  chin. 
'  He  was  weak  in  the  chest ;  he  would  have  been  very  strong  but 
for  this.  He  wears  a  rough  grey  vest,  buttons  with  a  shank  and  eye, 
such  as  are  no  longer  worn.  I  do  not  think  they  are  made  of  brass, 
nor  of  the  same  stuff  as  the  vest,  they  don't  look  to  me  very  bright. 
His  pantaloons  are  of  a  dark  colour,  and  he  wears  low-quartered  shoes 
without  any  instep. 

" '  This  man  was  of  a  stubborn  disposition,  selfish,  without  any  fine 
feelings ;  had  a  sinister  look,  was  not  very  communicative,  devoid  of 
candour,  and  had  but  little  affection  for  any  one.  He  had  suffered  with 
his  heart.  His  death  was  natural,  but  sudden,  he  died  of  suffocation.' 
Adele  chokes  as  the  man  choked,  and  coughs  as  he  did.  She  says  that 
'  he  must  have  had  moxas  or  a  plaster  applied  to  his  back,  and  this 
accounts  for  the  sore  I  see  there.  He  had  no  disease,  however,  in  that 
part,  the  spine  was  sound.  Those  who  applied  this  remedy  did  not 
know  the  seat  of  the  disease.  He  holds  himself  badly.  His  back  is 
round  without  being  humped.' 

"  M.  Petiet  finds  nothing  to  alter  in  these  details,  which  are  very 
exact,  and  confirm  him  in  his  belief  that  the  application  of  the  plaster, 
advised  by  a  man  who  was  not  a  doctor,  brought  on  his  brother's 
death,  which  was  almost  sudden. 

"  *  Signed  the  present  report  as  very  exact. 

"*  Petiet, 
"  '  19,  Rue  Neuve  Coquenard.' 
"  Note. — The  buttons  that  Adele  was  unable  to  describe  were  of  metal, 
a  dirty  white  ground,  and  surrounded  by  a  blue  circle.  In  the  appari- 
tion there  is  a  remarkable  fact  to  be  noted — viz.,  that  Adele  experienced 
the  same  kind  of  illness  as  this  man.  I  was  obliged  to  release  her 
by  passes.    She  suffered  terribly." 

As  the  description  given  by  Adele  faithfully  represented 
the   image   of  the    dead    man    present  in  the  mind  of  his 
brother  it  might  conceivably — if  we  exclude  the  possibility 
'  Arcanes  de  la  vie  future  dcvoiles,  vol.  ii.  p.  170. 


204     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

of  fraud — be  attributed  to  thought-transference.  But  some 
of  the  more  inteUigent  witnesses  devised  special  tests  to 
exclude  thought-transference.     Thus  : — 

"  No.  122.'     Pastor  Rostan,  who    is    referred    to    in  the  preceding 

seance  in  connection  with  the  conversion  of  M.  I'Abbe  A ,  desired 

in  his  turn  to  obtain  an  apparition.  ...  He  asked  his  maid-servant  to 
give  him  the  name  of  one  of  her  acquaintances  who  had  been  dead 
some  time  ;  he  came  armed  with  this  name,  and  asked  for  Jcannette 
Jcx.  Adclc  rcphcd,  '  I  see  a  woman  who  is  not  tall.  She  may  be 
between  thirty  and  forty  years  of  age  ;  if  she  is  not  hump-backed  she  must 
be  crook-backed,  for  she  carries  herself  very  badly.  I  caimot  make  her 
turn  round.  Her  hair  is  auburn,  approaching  to  red  ;  she  has  small  grey 
eyes,  a  thick  nose.  She  is  not  good-looking.  She  has  a  prominent 
chin,  a  receding  mouth,  thin  lips  ;  her  dress  is  countrified.  I  see 
that  she  has  a  cap  with  two  flat  bands,  rounded  over  the  ears.  She 
must  have  suffered  from  a  flow  of  blood  to  the  head  ;  she  has  had 
indigestion.  I  see  she  has  a  swelling  in  the  abdomen  on  one  side,  and 
in  tile  glands  of  one  breast.     She  lias  been  ill  a  long  time.' 

"  M.  Rostan  handed  tlie  report  to  his  servant,  ai.d  gave  it  back  to  me 
after  adding  his  sign.ature  and  the  following  remark  : — 

'"This  is  correct  as  regards  stature,  age,  dress,  carriage,  the  disease 
and  deformed  figure. 

"'(Signed)    J.  J.  Rostan.'" 

M.  Rostan  appears  to  have  been  satisfied  with  the  result 
of  the  test ;  but  some  of  his  friends  were  still  disposed  to 
attribute  the  results  to  thought-transference.  Apart  from 
these  test  cases,  which  are  too  few  to  allow  us  to  base  any 
conclusion  on  them,  there  seems  no  reason  to  go  beyond 
thought-transference  to  explain  Adele's  revelations.  That 
was  not  the  view,  however,  taken  by  less  critical  readers, 
either  in  France  or  elsewhere.  The  somnambulist's  out- 
pourings were  widely  accepted  as  authentic  revelations  from 
the  world  of  spirits,  and  Cahagnet's  book  had  a  powerful 
influence  in  shaping  the  destinies  of  Modern  Spiritualism. 

'  Arcaucs,  vol.   ii.   pp.    142-144.     See  also  the  case   of  Abbe  A 

vol.  ii.  pp.  98,  99. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SPIRITUALISM   IN   GERMANY 

Animal  Magnetism  more  widely  practised  by  medical  men  in 
Germany  than  in  France  or  England — Prevalence,  at  first,  of  physical 
theories,  gradually  yielding  to  Spiritualist  views — Wesermann's  experi- 
ments in  transference  of  thought  :  many  cases  of  clairvoyance — The 
case  of  Julie  recorded  by  Strombeck  :  her  visits  to  heaven  :  her  predic- 
tions of  her  illness  :  the  method  of  treatment  prescribed  in  the  trance  : 
her  dictatorial  attitude — Other  somnambules  described  by  Romer, 
Werner,  and  others — The  Seeress  of  Prevorst  :  her  supernormal  powers  : 
her  conversations  with  spirits  :  her  revelations  on  spiritual  matters — 
The  Spiritualist  view  widely  accepted  in  Germany  by  writers  of  some 
standing 

SINCE  1784,  when  the  practice  of  Animal  Magnetism 
had  been  so  severely  condemned  by  the  official 
medical  corporation,  few  medical  men  in  France  of 
any  standing  ventured  even  to  let  their  interest  in  the  subject 
be  known.  But  in  Germany,  as  we  have  already  learnt  from 
the  discussion  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine  at  Paris  in  1826, 
matters  stood  on  a  different  footing.  There  was  no  strong 
central  body,  as  in  France,  to  impose  its  restrictions  on  the 
physicians  throughout  the  scattered  empire.  On  such  matters 
every  principality  was,  no  doubt,  a  law  to  itself  As  a  matter 
of  fact  we  find  that  from  18 10  onwards  Animal  Magnetism 
was  increasingly  employed  throughout  Germany  in  private 
practice ;  whilst  Court  physicians  and  professors  of  medicine 
and  surgery  at  many  universities  published  treatises  on  the 
subject.  The  periodical,  Archiv  fiir  den  thicrischen  Mag- 
netisjiius,  which  commenced  in  18 16,  was  edited  jointly  by 
Eschenmayer,  Kieser,  and   Nasse,  professors  at  Tubingen, 


2o6    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

Jena,  and  Halle  respectively.  Amongst  others  who  had 
written  on  the  subject,  or  who  openly  included  it  in  their 
medical  practice  in  the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  were  Wolfart  and  Kluge,  professors  at  the  University 
of  Berlin  ;  Ennemoser,  Professor  at  Bonn  ;  Ilufeland,  chief 
physician  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  who  had  established  a 
hospital  for  pursuing  the  treatment ;  Sticglitz,  physician  to 
our  own  George  III.  at  Hanover;  Reil,  professor  at  Halle; 
VV.  Arndt,  secretary  to  the  Oberland  gericht  of  Prussia ; 
J.  U.  Bahrens,  Hofrath  of  Baden,  and  doctor  of  medicine  and 
philosophy.  By  most  of  these  men,  as  by  the  older  writers 
on  the  subject,  such  as  Gmelin  and  VVienholt,  Magnetism  was 
regarded  principally  as  an  adjunct  to  the  art  of  healing,  and 
in  their  physical  conception  of  the  subject  they  followed 
closely  on  the  lines  of  the  French  Magnetisers.  Experiments 
and  observations  such  as  we  have  already  become  familiar 
with  in  reading  the  works  of  Tardy  de  Montravel,  Petetin, 
and  Deleuze,  were  repeated  again  and  again  by  the  German 
investigators.  The  magnetic  fluid  could  be  seen  radiating 
as  a  stream  of  light  from  the  eyes  and  the  fingers  of  the 
operator  and  the  poles  of  a  magnet,  from  the  heart  of  a 
living  frog  or  the  spinal  marrow  of  a  newly  killed  ox.  Metals 
exercised  severally  characteristic  effects  on  somnambules  at 
a  distance  of  ten  or  fifteen  paces  ;  the  poles  of  a  magnet 
could  be  distinguished  by  the  different  sensations  to  which 
they  gave  rise.  To  the  clairvoyant  somnainbule  her  whole 
body,  irradiated  by  the  magnetic  fluid,  seemed  transparent. 
She  could  see  her  heart  beating,  could  trace  the  course  of  the 
nerves  and  the  blood  flowing  through  the  arteries.  The 
thaumaturgic  fluid  was  invoked  to  explain  wonders  greater 
than  these,  for  its  action,  if  perhaps  diminished  in  efficacy, 
was  at  all  events  not  annulled  by  distance.  One  of  the  most 
thoroughgoing  advocates  of  the  physical  transmission  theory 
was  Herr  Wesermann,  Government  Inspector  and  Chief 
Assessor  of  Roads  at  Diisseldorf  In  1822  he  published  a 
small  book,  Der  Magnetisvius  und  die  allgemeine  Weltspracke, 
in  which  he  records  some  experiments  of  his  own  in  action 
at  a  distance.     Even  the  fluid  emanating  from  the  mineral 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   GERMANY  207 

magnet  will,  he  points  out,  pass  through  solid  opaque  sub- 
stances without  losing  its  virtue  ;  the  fluid  which  streams 
from  our  own  bodies  has  no  less  penetrating  power.  More- 
over, this  animal  fluid  can  act  at  a  much  greater  distance. 
Agrippa,  four  hundred  years  ago,  had  taught  that  from  every 
body  there  proceed  images  of  an  indestructible  nature  which 
extend  themselves  endlessly  through  space,  and  by  this  means 
bodies  can  act  upon  each  other,  though  very  far  off,  so  that  a 
man  can  share  his  thoughts  with  a  friend  one  hundred  miles 
away.i  And  Mesmer,  as  Wesermann  reminds  us,  was  of 
opinion  that  a  man  through  his  inner  sense  could  learn  what 
was  happening  to  a  friend  at  a  distance,  if,  as  is  the  case 
under  magnetic  influence,  the  more  insistent  appeals  of  the 
external  sensory  world  could  be  stilled. 

Moved  by  these  considerations,  Wesermann  set  himself  to 
influence  some  of  his  acquaintances  by  means  of  his  thoughts. 
He  made  five  successful  experiments,  the  distance  varying 
from  a  furlong  to  nine  miles.  In  the  first  four  experiments 
the  percipient  was  asleep,  and  his  dream  reproduced  the 
image  willed  by  Wesermann. 

In  the  fifth  experiment  the  apparition  of  a  human  figure 
was  seen  by  the  percipient,  who  happened  to  be  awake. 

Marvellous  though  the  incident  may  seem,  there  are  several 
close  parallels  amongst  the  more  recent  cases  investigated 
by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  And  Wesermann's 
explanation  of  these  occurrences  has  anticipated  with  curious 
exactness  that  offered  by  later  inquirers.  The  figure  seen, 
though  with  the  eyes  open,  is  not  a  ghost  but  a  dream  ;  the 
dream  was  produced  by  the  thought  of  the  distant  experi- 
menter. We  have  only  to  substitute  for  Wesermann's 
hypothetical  stream  of  magnetic  fluid  the  more  modern  con- 
ception of  ethereal  undulations  originating  in  the  molecular 
changes  of  the  agent's  brain  accompanying  the  act  of 
thought.2 

'  Quoted  by  Wesermann,  op.  cit.,  p.  33. 

*  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Wesermann  has  not  given  us  fuller 
luioi  Illation  about  his  experiments  ;  from  a  subsequent  letter,  published 
in   Nasse's  Zeitschrifi  fur  psjchische  Arzie,  vol.  iii.  p.  758,  it  is  to  be 


2o8    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Clairvoyance  at  a  distance  was  apparently  much  commoner 
in  Germany  and  Northern  Europe  generally  at  this  time  than 
in  France.  The  cases  quoted  are  rarely,  however,  recorded 
with  sufficient  detail  to  serve  any  purpose  other  than  that  of 
attesting  the  prevalence  of  the  belief,  and  some  of  the 
instances  are  strongly  suggestive  of  collusion. 

The  special  contribution  of  the  German  nation,  however,  to 
the  early  history  of  Animal  Magnetism  consists  of  the 
revelations  concerning  the  spiritual  world  dictated  by  several 
somnambules  in  the  state  of  ecstasy.  One  of  the  earliest 
somnambules  to  receive  the  honour  of  a  verbatim  report  was 
Friiulein  Julie,  an  account  of  whose  case  was  published  by 
Baron  von  Strombeck  in  1813.^  No  "  magnetic  "  procedure 
was  indeed  employed  in  this  case  to  induce  the  trance. 
Fr:iulein  Julie  afforded  one  of  those  curious  exhibitions  of 
spontaneous  dissociation  of  personality  with  which  the  investi- 
gations of  French,  German,  and  American  physicians  in 
recent  times  have  made  us  comparatively  familiar.  But  in 
correlating  the  manifestations  with  those  of  the  induced 
trance  the  observers  of  18 13  showed  a  sound  judgment, 
though  instead  of  referring  the  spontaneous  psychological 
phenomena  to  Magnetism  we  should  now  class  the  mani- 
festations of  the  so-called  magnetic  trance  under  the  heading 
of  psycho-physiology. 

Fraulein  Julie  was  a  young  woman  of  seventeen  who 
came  in  18 10  to  act  as  governess  and  companion  in  the 
household  of  Baron  von  Strombeck,  president  of  a  judicial 
tribunal  in  Zell,  Prussia.  From  the  summer  of  18 12 
onwards  Baron  von  Strombeck  himself  took  careful — in 
the  latter  part  of  the  period  almost  verbatim — notes  of  the 
proceedings.      There   were    present   as   witnesses    on    most 

inferred  that  he  had  made  other  experiments,  of  which  some  at  least, 
as  was  to  be  anticipated,  had  failed  ;  and  that  apparitions  such  as  that 
above  described  could  seldom  be  produced.  Two  of  his  friends, 
however,  he  tells  us,  succeeded  in  like  manner  in  influencing  persons  at 
a  distance.  See  the  note  on  VVesermann's  experiments  in  the  Journal 
S.P.R.  for  March,  1890. 

•  I  have  followed  the  French  translation,  Histoirc  dc  la  Gueriion  d'une 
jeune  personne  {PsLti'i,  1814). 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   GERMANY  209 

occasions  of  importance  several  other  persons  of  standing, 
including  three  physicians,  Marcard,  Koler,  and  Schmidt, 
all  of  whom  furnished  independent  accounts  of  what  they 
witnessed.  When  Julie  came  to  Strombeck's  house  in  18 10 
she  soon  gained  the  affections  of  the  family  by  her 
charming  character;  she  was  a  bright  talker,  an  admirable 
reciter  and  actress  ;  she  on  one  occasion  took  the  leading 
part  in  a  little  musical  play  written  in  iambic  verse  by 
Strombeck,  and  her  singing  and  acting  won  universal 
applause.  At  her  first  coming  she  seemed  in  perfect 
health.  But  in  the  summer  of  181 1  she  had  several 
attacks  of  convulsions.  Dr.  Koler,  the  family  physician, 
was  called  in,  but  found  her  a  very  intractable  patient.  She 
laced  very  tight,  and  absolutely  refused  to  give  up  the  prac- 
tice, which  the  physician  pointed  out  to  her  must  seriously 
aggravate  her  ailment.  It  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty 
that  he  could  induce  her  to  take  any  medicine  at  all.  Her 
sense  of  smell  was  very  highly  developed ;  she  disliked  the 
odour  of  most  of  the  drugs  proposed  and  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  them.  She  refused  to  be  bled  or  to  submit  to 
other  methods  of  treatment  proposed,  and  was  very  unwilling 
to  give  the  doctor  any  details  of  her  personal  or  family  his- 
tory. Ultimately,  in  the  summer  of  181 2,  she  consented  to 
be  bled  and  to  undergo  a  course  of  treatment,  baths,  &c.,  and 
thereafter  remained  almost  perfectly  well  for  six  months.  In 
January,  181 3,  however,  her  attacks  were  renewed.  She 
then  in  the  trance  undertook  her  own  treatment,  laid  down  a 
very  exact  dietary  for  herself,  and  was  finally  cured  in  about 
a  fortnight. 

During  her  earlier  attacks  in  181 1  she  commonly  passed, 
after  the  convulsions,  into  a  state  of  trance,  in  which  she  would 
believe  herself  to  be  voyaging  in  air  over  the  surface  of  the 
globe,  watching  the  rising  of  the  sun  or  admiring  the  beauty 
of  the  moon  on  the  ocean.  Sometimes  she  believed  herself  to 
be  in  heaven,  holding  converse  with  angels  and  the  souls  of 
the  just ;  or  she  would  offer  prayer  and  praise  in  the  most 
exquisite  language.  During  these  celestial  visions  her  utter- 
ances  were   habitually   cast   in   the   form   of  iambic   verse, 


210     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

apparently  suggested  by  the  play  referred  to ;  and  Strombeck 
testifies  that  her  rhythm  was  practically  faultless — he  only 
once  detected  a  halting  line.  Occasionally  she  carried  her 
visionary  interpretation  into  the  real  world  around  her, 
mistook  Strombeck  and  his  family  for  discarnated  spirits, 
and  was  astonished  to  find  them  already  dead.  Strombeck 
was  profoundly  moved  by  these  scenes,  and  could  almost 
believe  himself  already  in  the  society  of  the  blessed.  But 
Julie  warned  him  that  he  might  find  it  dull  in  heaven  in 
the  absence  of  his  regular  occupation  in  the  law-courts. 

During  this  period  Strombeck  distinguished  four  different 
stages  in  her  condition  in  the  trance,  in  one  only  of  which 
the  patient  kept  her  eyes  closed.  In  the  other  three  she 
appears  to  have  had  her  eyes  open  »  and  to  have  taken  part 
in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life.  Her  bearing  and  conduct  were 
marked  by  certain  differences,  and  each  state  was  character- 
ised by  an  exclusive  memory.  The  memory  of  the  normal 
life  was,  however,  common  to  all  four  states.  From  the 
midsummer  of  1812  until  the  end  of  the  year,  as  already 
said,  these  attacks  almost  entirely  ceased.  But  in  the  even- 
ing of  January  4,  1813,  something  happened  to  put  her  out. 
Dr.  Koler  had  already  noted  that  her  equilibrium  was  easily 
upset  if  anything  occurred  to  cross  her.  On  this  occasion  she 
suddenly  fell  at  the  supper-table  into  the  second  state,  a  kind 
of  delirium.  She  was  undressed  and  put  to  bed,  and  then 
passed  into  a  profound  sleep,  from  which  she  did  not  wake 
until  midday  on  the  5th.  A  large  part  of  the  next  two  or 
three  days  was  passed  in  alternations  of  fainting-fits  and 
delirium  with  heavy  slumber.  Dr.  Koler  was  called  in,  but 
could  do  nothing  ;  and  Strombeck  himself  recognised  that 
it  was  in  the  patient's  own  power  at  least  partially  to  control 
her  attacks,  if  she  chose  to  do  so. 2 

On  the  evening  of  the  7th  she  fell  again  into  the  trance, 
and  in  that  state  announced  that  she  would  be  completely 
restored  to  health  in  a  few  days.  To  secure  this  happy  end- 
ing, however,  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  follow  implicitly 

'  This  is  not  expressly  stated  of  the  fourth  state,  op.  ciL,  p.  30. 

»  op.  at.,  p.  34. 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   GERMANY  211 

the  directions  which  she  would  herself  issue  for  her  treatment. 
In  effect  during  the  following  days  the  entranced  Julie  dic- 
tated to  the  obedient  watchers  at  her  bedside  predictions  as 
to  the  course  of  her  malady  and  minute  directions  as  to  the 
treatment  to  be  followed.  At  such  an  hour  or  minute  she 
would  wake ;  at  such  another  hour  she  would  fall  into  strong 
convulsions  or  into  delirium  ;  the  attack  would  last  so  many 
hours ;  and  so  on.  As  the  clock  struck  8.30  she  was  to  have 
a  cup  of  strong  coffee  with  precisely  four  teaspoonfuls  of 
milk ;  at  such  another  time  three  cups  of  camomile  tea,  or 
half  a  glass  of  wine,  with  sugar ;  sago  soup,  or  a  glass  of 
iced  water  from  the  spring.  She  must  take  certain  baths, 
must  be  placed  in  a  certain  bed;  on  such  and  such  an  evening 
her  attendants  must  find  her  some  distraction — a  concert 
would  do,  but  something  more  exciting  would  be  better.  At 
another  time  they  must  bathe  the  patient's  forehead  with 
eau-de-Cologne,  and  give  her  half  a  glass  of  Malaga  to  drink. 
But  for  Heaven's  sake  they  must  not  on  any  account  let  iron 
touch  her,  or  attempt  to  bleed  her,  or  in  the  minutest  detail 
fall  short  of  or  exceed  their  instructions,  for  in  that  event 
madness  or  death  might  follow. 

Poor  Strombeck  and  his  wife  yielded  unquestioning 
obedience  to  these  instructions.  So  anxious  were  they  not 
to  overlook  any  detail  that  Strombeck  would  read  his  notes 
aloud  over  and  over  again  that  the  somnambule  might 
correct  them,  and  on  an  important  occasion  he  made  two 
copies  of  the  inspired  instructions,  one  for  his  own  use  and 
one  for  that  of  his  wife.  For  the  next  ten  days  they  were 
kept  fully  occupied,  for  the  treatment  would  occasionally  be 
modified  at  short  notice,  and  any  act  of  omission  might 
entail  terrible  consequences.  On  one  occasion,  owing  to 
some  uncertainty  as  to  the  precise  instructions,  the  invalid 
did  not  drink  the  glass  of  wine  which  she  had  previously 
prescribed  for  herself,  and  at  intervals  during  the  next  few 
days  she  bitterly  reproached  Strombeck  for  the  omission, 
and  called  him  to  witness  the  increased  suffering  brought  on 
her  by  his  negligence.  Equally  serious  consequences  ensued 
when  Strombeck,  at  the  instance  of  one  of  his  friends,  ven- 


212    MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

tured  so  far  as  to  address  a  question  to  the  entranced  patient 
without  having  received  instructions  to  do  so. 

The  last  command  was  that  Strombeck  should  have  a 
heavy  gold  ring  made  for  the  patient ;  it  had  to  be  made  at 
forty-eight  hours'  notice  after  a  prescribed  pattern,  and  must 
on  no  account  be  made  at  Zell.  The  infatuated  Strombeck 
sent  his  servant  on  horseback  to  Hanover,  some  thirty  miles 
distant,  to  execute  the  commission,  and  found  too  late  that 
he  had  forgotten  to  give  him  the  pattern.  He  dispatched  a 
friend's  servant  after  him  to  remedy  the  omission,  and  then 
passed  two  days  of  acute  anxiety,  because  the  second 
messenger  failed  to  overtake  the  first.  But  the  somnambule  in 
the  sequel  was  graciously  pleased  to  overlook  this  omission. 

At  precisely  10.30  on  the  morning  of  Sunda)-,  January  17, 
1813,  Strombeck  placed  the  ring  on  the  prescribed  finger  of 
the  patient.  Julie  promptly  yawned,  awoke  from  her  trance, 
and  was  cured  from  that  hour.  She  professed  to  have  no 
recollection  of  anything  which  had  taken  place  since  the 
evening  of  Monday,  January  4th. 

In  view  of  what  we  have  since  learnt  of  these  unstable 
hysterical  personalities  we  can  recognise  that  the  facts 
above  described  do  not  necessarily  imply  deliberate  fraud  on 
the  part  of  the  patient.  But  of  course  in  any  case  of  this 
kind  it  is  practically  impossible  to  draw  a  clear  line  between 
not  quite  unconscious  self-suggestion  and  the  not  quite  con- 
scious playing  of  a  part,  and  it  would  not  be  surprising  if 
Strombeck's  contemporaries  generally  wrote  him  down  as 
the  victim  of  a  designing  minx.  But  apart  from  the  strong 
affection  which  Strombeck  and  his  wife  obviously  felt  for  the 
patient,  they  had,  as  they  held,  other  grounds  for  giving  her 
implicit  trust,  in  the  tokens  of  supernormal  intelligence 
apparently  displayed.  So  far  as  her  own  power  of  self- 
healing  and  the  prediction  of  the  i)hases  of  her  own  illness 
were  concerned,  enough  has  already  been  said  in  previous 
chapters.  They  were,  of  course,  simply  results  of  self- 
suggestion.i     But  to  the  spectators  of  18 13  they  carried  con- 

»  Bertrand  cites  Strombeck's  case  as  a  typical  illustration  of  self- 
suggested  crises  simulating  prediction. 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   GERMANY  213 

viction  of  faculties  transcending  those  of  ordinary  humanity, 
a  conviction  which  was  strengthened  by  the  apparent  display 
of  clairvoyant  powers  in  the  course  of  the  illness. 

It  was  not  until  Julie  descended  to  practical  affairs,  and 
gave  directions  for  her  own  curative  treatment,  that  Strom- 
beck,  as  will  be  seen,  thought  her  sayings  worth  recording 
verbatim.  If  he  had  regarded  her  ecstatic  visions  of  heaven 
as  equally  worthy  of  attention,  we  should,  no  doubt,  have  had 
as  full  revelations  from  her  as  from  other  somnambules  of 
this  period  whose  utterances  were  reverently  taken  down  by 
their  obedient  magnetisers.  Auguste  Mliller,  a  patient  of 
Dr.  Meier,  not  only  gave  many  illustrations  of  clairvoyance 
at  a  distance,  but  conversed  on  occasion  with  the  spirit 
of  her  dead  mother.^  Another  somnambule,  Fraulein  Romer, 
daughter  of  Dr.  C.  Romer,  who  records  the  case,  advanced  a 
little  further  into  the  realms  of  the  unknown.^  Under  the 
guidance  now  of  some  dead  relative,  now  of  the  spirit  of  a 
still  living  companion,  the  young  lady  repeatedly  voyaged  to 
the  moon,  and  there  met  her  deceased  grandparents,  and 
learnt  that  her  younger  sisters  had  already  gone  on  to  Juno. 
Miss  Romer's  description  of  lunar  scenery  and  of  the  astro- 
nomical phenomena  attendant  on  her  voyage  are  not  such 
as  to  inspire  us  with  confidence  in  her  revelations,  though 
her  father  records  them  in  all  seriousness  as  deeming  them, 
if  not  authentic,  at  least  worthy  of  consideration.  He  men- 
tions, indeed,  that  the  descriptions  of  other  worlds  given  by 
his  daughter  accord  with  those  given  by  other  clairvoyants. 

Heinrich  Werner's  somnambule,  R.  D.,  had  terrible  inter- 
views with  a  wicked  monk,  and  a  Jesuit  to  boot,  who  by 
his  own  confession  had  murdered  his  five  children  and  buried 
them  one  by  one  in  a  cloister.  From  the  too  near  approach 
of  this  fearsome  being  R.  D.  was  shielded  by  her  guardian 
spirit,  the  angel-pure  Albert,  who  gave  Werner  several  re- 
markable  proofs   of  his   existence.      On   one   occasion   the 

*  H delist  merkwUrdige  Geschichte  det  magnetisch  hellsehenden  Auguste 
A/;V7/dr  (Stuttgart,  1818). 

"  Ausfiihrliche  historische  Darstellung  einer  hochst  merkwiirdigen 
Somnambule,  &c.,  &c.,  von   C.  Romer,   Ph.D.,   &c.    (Stuttgart,  182 1). 


214    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

wicked  monk  overthrew  two  flower-pots  in  an  empty  room 
at  Werner's  lodgings,  and  would  have  done  more  damage 
but  for  the  restraining  hand  of  Albert.^ 

But  the  best-known  somnambule  of  the  period,  in  whom 
all  these  marvels  culminated,  was  Frederica  Haufle,  the 
Seeress  of  Prevorst,  whose  sayings  and  doings  have  been 
fully  chronicled  by  Kerner. 

Justinus  Kerner,  a  well-known  poet  of  that  generation  and 
a  physician  of  some  distinction,  had  his  attention  early  called 
to  the  trance  and  its  value  in  therapeutics.  Towards  the 
end  of  1826  there  came  to  him  at  Weinsberg,  to  be  treated 
by  him,  one  Frau  Frederica  Hauffe.  A  full  history  of  her 
remarkable  trances  was  published  by  Kerner  in  1829,  shortly 
after  the  death  of  the  Seeress.2 

From  her  childhood  she  had  been  delicate,  had  suffered 
from  convulsive  attacks,  had  fallen  into  spontaneous  trance, 
and  seen  visions.  She  had  already  been  magnetised,  with 
more  or  less  success,  by  different  persons.  After  her  arrival 
at  Weinsberg  she  spent  the  greater  part  of  her  existence  in 
somnambulism — the  trance,  or  secondary  condition,  lasting 
on  one  occasion  for  about  a  year.  Kerner  records  several 
instances  of  clairvoyant  and  prophetic  dreams  and  visions ; 
but  the  evidence  is  in  all  cases  inconclusive,  and  sometimes 
indicative  of  collusion  with  members  of  the  Seeress's  family. 

But  the  Seeress's  supernormal  faculties  found  their  most 
characteristic  field  of  activity  in  seeing  and  holding  conver- 
sations with  phantasmal  figures,  the  spirits  of  deceased  men 
and  women,  who  came  to  her  mostly  for  help,  guidance,  and 
prayer.  In  this  manner  she  made  the  spiritual  acquaintance 
of  a  former  burgomaster,  who  had  died  in  the  middle  of  the 
preceding  century,  also  of  a  recently  deceased  solicitor,  of 
ill  repute,  and  of  other  deceased  citizens  of  Weinsberg,  and 

'  DieScJttiizgeisier,  by  Heinrich  Werner  (Stuttgart  and  Tubingen,  1839). 

*  Die  Seherin  von  Prevorst :  Eroffnungen  iiber  das  innere  Leben  des 
Menschcn  un  iiber  das  Hereinragen  einer  Geisterwelt  in  die  Unsere 
(Stuttgart  and  Tubingen).  A  second  edition,  to  which  reference  is  made 
iu  this  account,  was  published  in  1832,  and  two  others  in  1838  and 
1846  respectively.  An  English  translation,  greatly  abridged,  by  Mrs. 
Crowe,  was  published  in  London  in  1845. 


SPIRITUALISM    IN   GERMANY  215 

received  from  them  much  information  on  their  affairs  and 
family  history. 

These  ghostly  figures,  which  purported  constantly  to  ap- 
pear to  the  Seeress  herself,  both  by  night  and  by  day,  were 
occasionally  visible  to  Kerner  and  other  inmates  of  the 
house.  Further,  the  household  was  constantly  disturbed 
by  raps,  knockings  on  the  walls,  and  other  noises ;  also 
stones  were  thrown  about,  a  lamp  shade,  a  knitting  needle, 
a  stool ;  the  Seeress's  boots  and  other  objects  flew  through 
the  air,  just  as  in  a  modern  Poltergeist  entertainment.  It 
must  seem  to  many  difficult  of  comprehension  that  a  man 
of  education  and  intelligence  should  have  seen  in  puerile 
performances  of  this  kind  signs  of  the  intervention  of  a 
spiritual  world,  or  should  have  taken  the  rhapsodical  utter- 
ances of  hysteria  and  diseased  egotism  as  the  foundation  of 
a  new  mystical  philosophy.  Yet  such  in  fact  was  the  case, 
Kerner  regards  himself  as  highly  privileged  in  being  chosen 
to  witness  these  marvels  and  to  record  the  wisdom  which 
fell  from  the  lips  of  the  Seeress.  He  chronicles  for  us  all 
that  she  told  of  sun-circles  and  life-circles  and  the  mystic 
relation  of  numbers.  He  reproduces  for  us  portentous 
designs  of  interlacing  circles 

"With  centric  and  eccentric  scribbled  o'er, 
Cycle  and  epicycle,  orb  in  orb,'' 

with  the  Seeress's  interpretations  thereof,  partly  in  cypher, 
partly  in  the  primitive  universal  language  written  in  the 
primitive  ideographs. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  century  Jung-Stilling,  in  his 
Theorie  der  Geister-Kunde,  had  discerned  in  the  phenomena 
of  the  trance  new  proofs  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
According  to  him  Animal  Magnetism  proves  incontrovertibly 
that  man  consists  of  an  innermost  essence  or  soul,  which  is 
a  spark  of  the  divine  fire,  an  immortal  spirit  possessing  reason 
and  will,  and  of  a  luminous  body  {Lichtshiille)  which  is  in- 
separable from  it.  These  two  are  temporarily  comprised  in 
a  body  of  flesh,  and  in  ordinary  waking  life  their  powers  are 
cribbed  and  confined  by  that  conjunction.     But  in  profound 


2i6    MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

sleep,  trance,  or  ecstasy  the  inner  spirit  may  loosen  its  hold 
upon  the  body ;  the  vital  functions  will  go  on  of  themselves, 
and  the  emancipated  soul  may  rise  to  the  world  of  real 
existence,  and  so  gain  new  powers  of  comprehension  and 
hold  converse  with  its  fellows.  Even  amongst  the  more 
sober-minded  investigators  of  Animal  Magnetism,  who 
rejected  the  crudely  Spiritualistic  view,  there  were  many, 
such  as  VVienholt,  Kieser,  and  Kluge — to  mention  no  others 
— who  held  that  in  the  higher  stages  of  the  trance  the  soul 
approaches  the  threshold  of  the  universal  life,  and  seems 
partly  to  free  itself  from  the  shackles  of  space  and  time ; ' 
whilst  Nasse  goes  further,  and  frankly  claims  that  in  som- 
nambulism we  have  to  deal  with  a  fact  of  the  spiritual  order, 
and  that  any  attempt  to  correlate  its  laws  with  those  of  the 
physical  universe  must  end  in  failure.^  It  is  clear,  indeed, 
that  men  who  believed  in  the  reality  of  clairvo)ance  at  a 
distance  (as  distinguished  from  reading  the  thou[;hts  of  those 
present)  must  have  been  hard  put  to  it  to  find  an  explanation 
in  physical  terms. 

But  Jung  Stilling's  views  were  further  defined  and 
materialised  by  the  Seercss  of  Prevorst  and  the  other  som- 
nambules  of  the  period.  The  psychic  body,  or  Nervengeist^ 
was  clearly  more  of  the  nature  of  body  than  of  spirit,  since 
not  only  could  it  be  seen  by  the  eyes  of  the  clairvoyant,  but 
in  the  case  of  specially  gross  or  earth-bound  spirits  it  could 
even  be  discerned  by  ordinary  eyes  as  the  spectre  in  a 
haunted  house  or  hovering  as  a  faint  cloud  round  a  newly 
made  grave.  Even  the  spirit  of  man — the  innermost  vital 
spark — was  not  wholly  immaterial.  That  is  reserved  for 
Deity  alone. 

The  influence  of  the  Seeress  of  Provorst  did  not  cease  with 
her  death.  In  a  series  of  volumes  entitled  Leaves  from 
Prevorst  a  little  circle  of  mystics,  of  whom  Kerner  himself, 
Gorres,  and  Eschenmayer  were  the  chief,  continued  for  some 

'  Wienholt,  Lectures  on  Somnambulism  (translated).  Kieser,  System 
des  Tellurismus  oder  thienschen  Ma^nctismus.  Kluge,  Versuch  eincr 
Darstellung  des  an.  Mag.,  pp.  259-306. 

•  ArchivfUr  den  th.  Mag.,  vol.  i.  part  iii.  pp.  3-22. 


SPIRITUALISM   IN   GERMANY  217 

years  to  expound  and  illustrate  her  teachings.  They  were 
interpreted  and  confirmed,  now  by  the  philosophical  writings 
of  Plato  and  Pythagoras,  or  the  works  of  more  recent  mystics, 
now  by  fresh  revelations  from  other  contemporary  seeresses. 
The  conception  of  the  spiritual  world  and  its  relation  with 
our  own,  thus  familiarised  by  the  writings  of  Kerner  and  his 
contemporaries,  unquestionably  did  much  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  advent  within  less  than  a  generation  of  the  gospel  of 
Modern  Spiritualism. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE   COMING  OF  THE   PROPHETS 

By  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  trance  is  widely  recog- 
nised as  opening  a  door  to  the  spiritual  world — Characteristics  of  the 
movement  in  America — Andrew  Jackson  Davis  :  his  childhood  and 
youth — He  dictates  Nature's  Divine  Revelations — The  doctrines  taught 
in  the  book — They  accurately  reflect  ideas  on  scientific,  social,  and 
religious  subjects  which  were  "  in  the  air." — His  view  of  disease  as  a 
discord,  a  thing  having  no  existence  in  itself — His  views  on 
marriage. 

THE  final  stage  in  the  history  of  the  science  founded 
by  Mesmer  has  now  been  reached.  From  this  time 
onwards  Animal  Magnetism  gradually  disappears 
from  view.  The  fluidic  theory,  as  we  have  seen,  has  been 
breaking  down.  Since  1784  the  attention  of  Animal  Mag- 
netists  has  year  after  year  been  turned  more  towards  the 
trance,  and  the  phenomena  associated  with  the  trance  have 
of  late  come  to  seem  irreconcilable  with  any  theory  of  a 
physical  effluence.  The  trance  itself,  originally  regarded 
primarily  as  a  valuable  aid  towards  the  recovery  of  the 
patient,  and  secondarily  as  a  means  of  diagnosing  and  pre- 
scribing for  the  ailments  of  others,  has  in  the  course  of  these 
two  generations  assumed  a  new  significance.  At  the  date  at 
which  we  are  now  arrived,  the  fifth  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  its  chief  interest  for  many  practitioners  lies  no  longer 
in  its  therapeutic  possibilities,  but  in  the  promise  which  it 
holds  forth  of  spiritual  revelations.  From  this  time  onwards 
the  entranced  clairvoyant  will  be  consulted  less  and  less 
frequently  as  a  physician  and  more  and  more  as  a  seer  of 
things  hidden  from  the  vulgar  gaze. 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   PROPHETS         219 

Again,  the  political  convulsions  which  marked  the  fateful 
years  1847  and  1848  throughout  the  civilised  world  appear  to 
have  awakened  echoes  in  the  world  of  thought  which  affected 
most  powerfully  the  little  band  of  dreamers  and  enthusiasts 
whose  doings  we  have  been  considering.  Both  in  Europe 
and  America  we  seem  to  be  aware  of  an  almost  conscious 
expectation  of  some  new  outpouring  of  spiritual  forces.  The 
Divine  Revelatiofts  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  were  published 
in  the  summer  of  1847.  In  the  following  year  appeared  the 
first  volume  of  Cahagnet's  Arcanes,  and  the  same  year  saw 
the  outbreak  at  Hydesville  of  those  mysterious  knockings 
which  formed  the  beginning  of  the  singular  epidemic  of 
Modern  Spiritualism.  It  would  be  foreign  to  the  purpose 
of  this  book  to  trace  the  later  sensational  developments  of 
that  movement.  But  in  its  early  stages  it  is  intimately 
connected  with  our  subject-matter — being,  in  fact,  a  direct 
outgrowth  from  the  mesmeric  propaganda  of  the  previous 
decade. 

The  history  of  Mesmerism  or  Animal  Magnetism  in 
America  ran  on  parallel  lines  with  its  course  in  this  country. 
As  was  the  case  in  England,  its  first  effectual  introduction 
to  the  United  States  dates  from  the  visit  of  a  French 
Magnetist,  Charles  Poyen,  who  lectured  in  various  New 
England  towns  in  1838.  His  platform  demonstrations  set 
an  example  which  was  widely  followed,  and  the  next  decade 
saw  the  growth  of  a  movement  similar  in  most  respects  to 
that  whose  course  we  have  traced  in  a  previous  chapter  in 
this  country.  The  leading  practitioners  in  America,  how- 
ever— Grimes,  Sunderland,  Collyer,  Dods,  Buchanan — were 
men  for  the  most  part  of  less  general  culture  and  possessing 
inferior  qualifications  for  scientific  investigation,  so  that  the 
movement  was  marked  by  greater  extravagance,  and  seems 
to  have  obtained  even  less  scientific  recognition  in  America 
than  in  Europe. 

After  the  outbreak  of  the  Hydesville  or  Rochester  rap- 
pings  in  1848  most  of  the  Mesmerists  were  absorbed  in  the 
larger  movement.  But  the  belief  in  a  fluid,  which  had  been 
supported  in  the  previous  decade  by  experiments  outshining 


220    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

in  grotesqueness  any  of  those  reported  by  Elliotson  or 
Reichenbach,  still  persisted  ;  and  for  the  first  few  years  the 
question  of  Fluids  versus  Spirits  as  an  explanation  of  the 
marvellous  doings  at  dark  stances  was  hotly  debated  in 
the  American  Spiritualist  journals.  Gradually,  however, 
the  Spiritualist  view  prevailed,  the  theory  of  a  magnetic  fluid 
suffered  euthanasia,  and  the  clairvoyants  were  left  in  posses- 
sion of  the  field. 

After  1848  the  movement  in  America  presents  one  remark- 
able feature  in  which  it  differs  from  the  European.  The 
entranced  subjects  of  Haddock  or  Cahagnet  laid  claim  in 
their  waking  hours  to  no  special  sanctity,  they  arrogated  to 
themselves  no  spiritual  authority ;  they  were  looked  upon 
simply  as  channels  for  the  conveyance  of  information.  And 
when,  a  few  years  later,  magnetic  clairvoyants  were  trans- 
formed into  spirit  mediums  this  characteristic  was  preserved. 
The  medium  was  regarded,  and  was  content  to  be  regarded, 
simply  as  the  mouthpiece  of  higher  intelligences.  Even  in 
Germany,  notwithstanding  the  almost  incredible  arrogance 
displayed  by  the  magnetic  subjects  of  Strombeck  and 
Kerner,  these  hysterical  young  women  never  ceased  to  be 
to  some  extent  subject  to  their  magnetisers.  They  remained 
primarily  "seers,"  and  their  seeing  was  intermittent  and 
dependent  as  a  rule,  on  another's  will.  But  in  the  land  of 
democracy  we  are  confronted  with  a  singular  development 
unknown  to  the  older  monarchies.  The  transatlantic  seers 
constantly  tend  to  be  independent  ;  they  assume  the  authority 
of  the  prophet ;  they  grasp  at  a  spiritual  autocracy — an 
autocracy  by  no  means  confined  to  the  spiritual  concerns  of 
those  subject  to  it.  The  supreme  example  of  this  spiritual 
autocracy  will,  of  course,  be  found  in  the  person  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  the  founder  of  "Christian  Science."  But  its  practical 
significance  can  best  be  understood  if  we  follow  its  origin 
and  development  in  the  course  of  two  earlier  ecstatics,  each 
of  whom,  though  born  some  years  after  Mrs.  Eddy,  reached 
the  culmination  of  his  career  as  a  prophet  before  her  reign 
had  well  begun. 

Andrew   Jackson    Davis   was    born    in    Blooming    Grove, 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   PROPHETS         221 

Orange  Co.,  New  York,  on  August  11,  1826.  His  father, 
by  turns  weaver  and  shoemaker,  eked  out  his  insufficient 
earnings  from  those  trades  by  odd  jobs  at  harvesting;  a 
shiftless,  unstable  man,  much  given  to  drink,  according  to 
his  son's  account,  at  one  period  of  his  married  life.  For  the 
first  few  years  of  the  prophet's  existence  the  family  lived 
somewhere  near  the  margin  of  subsistence,  and  the  young 
Andrew  Jackson  could  rarely  have  tasted  plenty.  His  mother 
was  a  gentle,  loving  woman  of  strongly  religious  tempera- 
ment— a  believer,  withal,  in  omens  and  spiritual  monitions. 
Young  Jackson  was  a  delicate,  dreamy,  indolent  child  ;  he 
had  little  regular  schooling — for  the  family  were  constantly 
moving  their  home  from  one  nascent  township  to  another — 
was  extremely  backward  in  his  studies,  and  generally  stupid 
and  unhandy.  With  a  body  no  doubt  permanently  under- 
nourished, he  grew  up  an  anaemic,  spiritless  lad,  always 
ready  to  turn  the  other  cheek  to  the  smiter,  and  comically 
frightened  when,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  a  forward  maiden 
proposed  to  walk  out  with  him. 

It  was,  indeed,  according  to  his  own  account,  an  entirely 
unromantic  childhood  ;  his  early  years  came  too  near  the 
hard  facts  of  life  to  admit  any  perception  of  their  beauty  or 
spiritual  significance.  In  one  of  the  passages  of  real  human 
interest  which  occasionally  break  through  the  studied  pose  of 
the  prophet's  autobiography  he  tells  us  that  as  a  child  he 
valued  animals,  trees  and  fruit,  sunshine  and  shade,  rain  and 
snow,  and  even  human  affection,  only  in  so  far  as  they  minis- 
tered to  sensual  needs.  His  mind  was  eminently  matter-of- 
fact,  and  as  a  child  he  seems  to  have  been  little  under  the 
influence  of  religious  hopes,  or  even  fears.  Nevertheless, 
when  at  the  age  of  twelve  he  attended  a  Sunday-school  class 
in  connection  with  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church,  he  claims 
to  have  argued  against  the  doctrines  of  predestination  and 
eternal  damnation,  and  to  have  confounded  his  venerable 
teacher.i 

Shortly  after  this  date  his  own  spiritual  experiences  began. 

»  The  Magic  Staff:  an  Autobiography,  by  Andrew  Jackson  Davis, 
p.  i6i,  thirteenth  edition  (New  York,  1876). 


222    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

In  1839,  when  the  boy  was  thirteen  years  old,  the  family 
removed  to  Poughkeepsie,  and  there  remained  four  years. 
Jackson  received  a  few  months'  further  teaching  in  the 
Lancasterian  School,  being  himself  appointed  monitor  over 
the  ABC  Class.  At  some  periods  of  his  early  childhood  he 
was  much  given  to  sleeprwalking,  and  occasionally  heard 
mysterious  voices  of  warning  or  encouragement.  One  inci- 
dent of  the  kind  occurred  when  he  was  about  seven  or  eight 
years  old.  Conceiving  himself  ill-used,  he  had  run  out  of  the 
cottage  one  evening  and  vented  his  anger  in  a  loud  oath, 
containing  all  the  bad  words  he  knew.  Presently  he  heard 
a  voice  cry  reproachfully,  "  Why,  Jackson ! "  The  child 
naturally  thought  it  was  his  mother's  voice,  but  going  in- 
doors, he  found  that  his  mother  had  not  called  him,  and  knew 
nothing  of  what  had  passed.  At  Poughkeepsie  the  counsels 
of  the  inner  voice  assumed  a  more  definite  shape.  One  day, 
being  out  of  work,  he  had  been  round  begging  unsuccessfully 
for  food,  when  he  heard  the  voice  say,  "  A  little  leaven 
leaveneth  the  whole  lump."  The  boy's  matter-of-fact  mind 
interpreted  this  as  a  command  to  peddle  yeast,  and  brought 
thereby  some  profit  to  the  family  purse.  A  few  months  later 
the  solemn  accents  were  heard  again,  "  Eat  plenty  of  bread 
and  molasses";  and  again  the  future  prophet  obeyed.  To 
such  lofty  ends  are  the  appetites  of  youthful  prophets  guided. 
Two  or  three  years  later,  moved  apparently  by  the  sentiment 
that  religious  faith  would  be  a  desirable  possession,  young 
Davis  attended  a  series  of  revival  meetings  in  a  Methodist 
Church,  but  failed  to  realise  salvation.  His  nature,  in  effect, 
if  we  may  trust  his  own  account  of  the  matter,  was  in  boy- 
hood, as  certainly  in  maturer  years,  curiously  insensible  to 
the  religious  appeal.  At  no  time  of  his  life  does  he  seem  to 
have  been  conscious  of  any  inward  deficiency,  or  to  have  felt 
any  urgent  craving  for  guidance  and  help.  His  attitude  to 
the  spiritual  world  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  complacent 
parochialism  of  Mr.  Lafayette  Kettle  surveying  the  visible 
universe  from  the  lofty  standpoint  of  an  American  citizen. 
But  a  crisis  in  the  boy's  life  was  at  hand.  In  1843,  when 
he  was  seventeen  years  old,  Professor  Grimes,  a  well-known 


THE   COMING   OF  THE   PROPHETS         223 

lecturer  on  Mesmerism,  gave  a  performance  at  Poughkeepsie. 
After  his  departure,  a  tailor,  William  Levingston,  operated  on 
young  Davis  and  sent  him  into  the  trance.  It  soon  appeared 
that  the  youth  possessed  clairvoyant  powers ;  he  read  a  news- 
paper placed  to  his  forehead,  told  the  time  on  the  watches  of 
those  present,  and  diagnosed  diseases. 

For  about  eighteen  months  Davis  remained  with  Leving- 
ston, prescribing  for  all  who  came  to  consult  him.  In  the 
clairvoyant  state  Davis  claimed  that  not  only  the  human 
body  but  the  whole  of  nature  became  transparent  to  his 
spiritual  vision.  He  could  see  the  blood  and  the  nerve 
currents  coursing  through  the  body  in  their  several  channels ; 
he  could  trace  every  fibre  in  leaf  and  tree  ;  he  could  see  veins 
of  metal  as  rivers  of  fire  running  under  the  earth  ;  his  eyes 
could  roam  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  globe,  and  track  the 
tiger  hunting  his  prey  in  Indian  forests. 

Amongst  the  substances  which  the  spiritual  eye,  thus 
roaming  over  boundless  nature,  selected  for  the  cure  of 
diseases  were  rats'  and  frogs'  skins,  and  the  fat  of  thirty- 
two  weasels.  But  he  did  not  at  this  period  of  his  career 
eschew  the  use  of  drugs,  and  the  knowledge  which  the 
unlettered  youth  displayed  of  medical  practice  and  termin- 
ology amazed  his  clients.  His  own  explanation  of  the 
matter  is  as  follows  : — 

"  By  looking  through  space  {i.e.,  in  the  trance)  directly  into  Nature's 
laboratory,  or  else  into  medical  establishments,  I  easily  acquired  the 
common  (and  even  the  Greek  and  Latin)  names  of  various  medicines, 
and  also  of  many  parts  of  the  human  structure,  its  anatomy,  its 
physiology,  its  neurology."  ' 

At  some  time  during  this  period  he  fell  into  a  prolonged 
trance,  in  the  course  of  which  he  was  conveyed — whether 
in  the  body  or  in  the  spirit  is  not  quite  clear — to  a  cemetery 
where  two  reverend  figures,  whom  he  afterwards  recognised 
as  Galen  and  Swedenborg,  came  to  him  and  offered  their 
help  and  counsel.  Later  Galen  appeared  again  and  promised 
a  Magic  Staff.  The  promise  was  fulfilled  by  the  display, 
*  The  Magic  Staff,  p.  253. 


224     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

in  radiant  letters,  before  the  seer's  inner  vision  of  the 
legend  : — 

BEHOLD 

HERE   IS  THY   MAGIC  STAFF. 

UNDER   ALL   CIRCUMSTANCES   KEEP  AN    EVEN   MIND. 

The  revelation  reveals,  if  nothing  else,  the  temperament  of 
the  prophet  and  the  limitations  of  his  spiritual  outlook. 

During  his  stay  with  Levingslon  Davis  dictated  in  the 
trance  a  series  of  lectures,  which  were  published  under  the 
title  Clairmativeness.  The  matter  dictated  was  taken  down 
from  the  seer's  lips  by  a  Universalist  minister,  the  Rev. 
Gibson  Smith,  who  corrected  the  grammar  and  edited  the 
book  for  publication. 

In  the  summer  of  1845  Davis,  in  obedience  to  an  inward 
monition,  forsook  Levingston  and  chose  as  his  mesmeriser, 
or  operator,  one  Dr.  Lyon,  a  physician  whose  acquaintance  he 
had  already  made  in  the  course  of  his  travels  for  healing 
purposes.  To  him  the  youthful  prophet  announced  the 
coming  of  a  fresh  revelation.  Another  scribe,  the  Rev.  W. 
Fishbough,  was  found.  The  three  took  lodgings  in  New 
York,  supporting  themselves  on  Davis's  earnings  as  a 
medical  clairvoyant  On  November  28,  1845,  Davis  entered 
for  the  first  time  the  "superior  condition" — a  self-induced 
trance — in  which  from  that  date  onwards  all  his  works  were 
produced. »  He  prefaced  the  dictation  of  his  first  chapter 
with  the  following  announcement :  "  To  the  great  centre  of 
intelligence,  to  the  positive  sphere  of  thought,  to  that  Force 
which  treasures  up  all  the  knowledge  of  human  worlds,  to  the 
Spiritual  Sun  of  the  spiritual  sphere,  I  go  to  receive  my 
information."  The  dictation  was  spread  over  about  fifteen 
months,  and  the  results  were  published  in  the  summer  of 
1847  in  a  portly  volume  entitled  The  Principles  of  Nature^ 
Her  Divine  Revelations,  and  a   Voice  to  Mankind. 

'  In  later  years  the  dissociation  of  consciousness  seems  to  have 
become  less  complete  ;  the  "  superior  condition "  was  apparently 
one  of  reverie  ratlier  than  of  trance. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE   PROPHETS       225 

The  Divine  Revelations,  the  most  important  section  of  the 
book,  opens  as  follows  : — 

"  In  the  beginning  the  Univercoelum  was  one  boundless,  undefinable, 
and  unimaginable  ocean  of  Liquid  Fire  !  The  most  vigorous  and 
ambitious  imagination  is  not  capable  of  forming  an  adequate  con- 
ception of  the  height  and  depth  and  length  and  breadth  thereof. 
There  was  one  vast  expanse  of  liquid  substance.  It  was  without 
bounds — inconceivable — and  with  qualities  and  essences  incompre- 
hensible. This  was  the  original  condition  of  Matter.  It  was  without 
forms,  for  it  was  but  one  Form.  It  had  not  motions,  but  it  was  an 
eternity  of  Motion.  It  was  without  parts,  for  it  was  a  Whole.  Particles 
did  not  exist,  but  the  Whole  was  as  one  Particle.  There  were  not  suns, 
but  it  was  one  Eternal  Sun.  It  had  no  beginning,  and  it  was  without 
end.  It  had  not  length,  for  it  was  a  Vortex  of  one  Eternity.  It  had  not 
circles,  for  it  was  one  Infinite  Circle.  It  had  not  disconnected  power, 
but  it  was  the  very  essence  of  all  Power.  Its  inconceivable  magnitude 
and  constitution  were  such  as  not  to  develop  forces,  but  Omnipotent 
Power. 

"  Matter  and  Power  were  existing  as  a  whole,  inseparable.  The 
Maiter  contained  the  substance  to  produce  all  suns,  all  worlds,  and 
systems  of  worlds,  throughout  the  immensity  of  Space.  It  contained 
the  qualities  to  produce  all  things  that  are  existing  upon  each  of  those 
worlds.  The  Power  contained  Wisdom  and  Goodness,  Justice,  Mercy, 
and  Truth.  It  contained  the  original  and  essential  Principle  that  is 
displayed  throughout  the  immensity  of  Space,  controlling  worlds  and 
systems  of  worlds,  and  producing  Motion,  Life,  Sensation,  and  In- 
telligence, to  be  impartially  disseminated  upon  their  surfaces  as 
Ultimates."' 

From  these  opening  sentences  the  entranced  clairvoyant 
proceeded  on  successive  evenings  to  trace  the  gradual 
evolution  of  the  ordered  universe  by  the  condensation  of 
the  primaeval  nebula  into  systems  of  suns  and  planets, 
passing  on  to  a  sketch  of  the  geological  progression  upon 
the  earth,  and  of  the  early  history  of  the  human  race,  as 
recorded  for  us  in  the  "  Primitive  History,"  the  term  invariably 
used  for  the  Old  Testament.  The  terminus  of  the  great 
cosmic  process,  it  was  explained,  is  the  individualisation  of 
Spirit,  the  production  of  Man,  the  Ultimate,  to  the  end  that 
communion  and  sympathy  may  be  established  between  the 
Creator  and  the  created. 

'  Op.  cit.  (thirty-fourth  American  edition,  Boston,  1876),  pp.  121,  122. 
Q 


226    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

"  Man,  the  final  cause  of  Nature,  is  in  himself  a  microcosm ; 
he  is  composed  of  particles  and  essences  of  all  things  else 
existing — all  below  Man  must  of  necessity  enter  into  the 
composition  of  his  being."  In  other  passages  man's  place  in 
the  scheme  of  things  is  more  precisely  defined.  "  The  Uni- 
verse must  be  united  by  a  Living  Spirit,  to  form,  as  a  whole, 
ONE  GRAND  MAN.  That  spirit  is  the  cause  of  its  present 
form,  and  is  the  Disseminator  of  motion,  life,  sensation,  and 
intelligence  throughout  all  the  ramifications  of  the  One 
Grand  Man."  To  this  universal  spirit  the  whole  visible  frame 
of  things  serves  as  a  Body  ;  "  Man  is  a  part  of  the  great  Body 
of  the  Divine  Mind.  He  is  a  gland  or  minute  organ  which 
performs  specific  functions,  and  receives  life  and  animation 
from  the  interior  moving  Divine  Principle."  As  such  he  can 
have  no  free  will,  for  if  independent  action  were  possible  to 
him  "  the  Universe  would  be  no  longer  an  organised  system 
of  beauty  and  grandeur,  but  an  incomprehensible  ocean  of 
chaos  and  confusion." 

Of  Christ  the  book  teaches  that  He  was  "  a  noble  and 
unparalleled  moral  Reformer,"  but  in  no  special  sense  divine. 
Naturally  Davis  rejects  popular  theology.  Its  four  pillars,  as 
he  describes  them,  are  the  doctrines  of  Original  Sin,  the  Atone- 
ment, Faith,  and  Regeneration.  The  first  he  calls  a  "  repulsive 
blasphemy,"  the  second  "  an  unrighteous  and  immoral " 
doctrine ;  faith  is  devoid  of  merit  ;  and  regeneration  is 
scientifically  untrue. 

The  Bible  he  interprets  as  giving  in  symbolism  an  account 
of  the  early  history  of  mankind.  Adam  and  Eve  stand  for 
the  primitive  human  race.  Originally  men  conversed  freely 
without  speech ;  but  when  they  had  eaten  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  they  learnt  how  to  conceal  their  thoughts  by 
"  arbitrary  vocal  sounds,"  thus  wrapping  them  "  in  deceptive 
aprons  of  obscurity."  "  The  animal  of  the  saurian  species 
(z>.,  the  Serpent)  .  .  .  corresponds  to  the  secret  imperceptible 
progress  of  an  unfavourable  and  unhappy  mental  develop- 
ment." I     The   story   of  the    Flood    "  is  an   entire   spiritual 

'  Mrs.  Eddy  finds  that  the  Serpent  means  Malicious  Animal 
Magnclism. 


THE   COMING   OF  THE   PROPHETS       227 

correspondence."  As  there  is  no  free  will  there  can  be  no 
sin  ;  the  race,  Davis  says,  "  was  merely  misdirected  in  youth 
...  I  discover  that  all  moral  disorder  results  from  the  mis- 
direction of  Love  and  Will."  Disease,  again,  is  as  unreal  as 
sin.  But  if  sin  and  disease  are  illusions,  matter  is  only  a 
symbol. 

"  It  is  highly  necessary  that  the  human  mind  should  comprehend  the 
great  truth  that  nothing  exists  in  the  outer  world  except  as  it  is  pro- 
duced and  developed  by  an  interior  essence,  and  that  of  this  essence 
the  exterior  is  the  perfect  representation.  .  .  .  Forms  do  not  exist  with 
the  mechanic  or  with  the  artist  merely  as  productions  of  the  outer 
combination  of  Matter ;  but  every  form  invented  by  Man  is  a  precise 
representation  of  the  interior  thought  which  is  the  cause  of  its 
creation." 

The  third  and  final  section  of  Davis's  inspired  book,  en- 
titled a  Voice  to  Mankind,  is  occupied  with  the  existing  state 
of  the  body  politic  and  with  forecasts  of  a  more  equitable 
scheme  on  Socialist  lines.  The  very  heavens,  he  claims, 
are  witnesses  on  the  side  of  the  coming  revolution  in  the 
affairs  of  man  : — 

"  The  beauty  and  harmony  displayed  in  the  motions  (of  the  celestial 
spheres)  with  respect  to  each  other  and  around  their  respective  centres, 
the  perfect  precision  manifested  in  every  line  and  path  in  which  they 
travel,  the  constant  reciprocal  and  universal  sympathy  which  they 
display,  manifest  in  their  general  indications  the  divine  attributes  of 
Meekness,  Compassion,  and  Mercy.  Each  motion,  action,  and  force 
observed  in  the  planetary  system  is  a  true  and  correct  signal  of  distri- 
butive Justice  and  infinite  Mercy." 

Besides  Lyon  and  Fishbough,  three  other  witnesses — the 
Rev.  J.  N.  Parker,  Theron  R.  Lapham,  and  Dr.  T.  Lea  Smith 
— were  appointed  to  be  present  at  each  dictation,  and  sign 
the  report.  Other  witnesses  were  occasionally  admitted,  of 
whom  the  most  notable  were  Thomas  Lake  Harris,  Albert 
Brisbane  the  Socialist,  and  the  Rev.  George  Bush,  Professor 
of  Hebrew  in  the  University  of  New  York,  and  a  well-known 
Swedenborgian.  Bush  vouches  in  the  most  emphatic  terms 
for  the  good  faith  of  the  author  and  his  circle.   On  more  than 


228    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

one  occasion  he  had  put  impromptu  questions  to  the  clair- 
voyant which  were  answered  correctly.  Bush  was  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  book. 

"For  grandeur  of  conception,"  he  writes,  "soundness  of  principle, 
clearness  of  illustration,  order  of  arrangement,  and  encyclopa?dic  range 
of  subjects,  I  know  of  no  work  of  any  single  mind  that  will  bear  away 
the  palm.  ...  In  every  [theme]  the  speaker  appears  to  be  equally  at 
home,  and  utters  himself  with  the  easy  confidence  of  one  who  has 
made  each  subject  the  exclusive  study  of  a  whole  life." 

John  Chapman,  the  well-known  editor  of  the  Westminster 
Review,  who  was  the  English  publisher,  gives  testimony 
hardly  less  striking.  "  The  aim  of  the  work,"  he  writes, "  is  so 
exalted,  the  style  and  thought  are  so  impressive  and  digni- 
fied," that  he  finds  it  impossible  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of 
the  author.  He  goes  on  to  point  out  that  the  philosophy  of 
the  Revelations  was  akin  to  that  of  Kant,  Fichte,  Schelling, 
and  Hegel  ;  while  the  scientific  conceptions  advocated  were 
confirmed  by  the  views  enunciated  by  Goethe,  Oken,  and  the 
Evolutionists  generally,  as  well  as  by  recent  discoveries  in 
astronomy.* 

Whatever  view  we  may  take  of  its  origin,  the  book  is,  no 
doubt,  an  extraordinary  production  for  a  youth  under  twenty 
years  of  age.  That  minor  defects  of  grammar  and  con- 
struction were  corrected  by  the  scribe  is  admitted.  Indeed, 
two  or  three  years  later  Davis  confessed  himself  still  un- 
willing to  trust  his  own  unaided  grammar  and  orthography 
{Afagic  Staff,  p.  42S).  But  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses 
makes  it  clear  that,  apart  from  such  corrections,  the  printed 
work  accurately  represents  the  utterances  of  the  clairvoyant. 
Nothing,  indeed,  in  the  ideas  presented  is  strictly  original. 
The  Voice  to  Mankind  reflects  with  more  or  less  exactness  the 
exotic  Socialism  which  had  taken  root  in  American  soil  a 
few  years  previously.  The  rest  of  the  book  embodies 
philosophical  and  theological  views  which  were  in  the  air. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Grand  Man,  the  science  of  Correspon- 

'  Brief  Outlines  and  Review  of"  The  Principles  of  Nature,"  &c.  (London, 
John  Chapman,  1847 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   PROPHETS       229 

dences,  the  relations  between  the  world  of  Spirit  and  the 
world  of  Matter — in  a  word,  the  greater  part  of  the  theological 
scheme — are  derived  from  Swedenborg.  The  striking  picture 
of  the  evolution  of  the  Cosmos,  which  had  so  impressed  the 
English  publisher,  contained  in  itself  nothing  novel,  except 
mistakes  m  scientific  terminology.  The  Vestiges  of  Creation, 
which  had  given  in  popular  language  an  account  of  the 
nebular  hypothesis  and  of  the  main  features  of  the  geological 
progression,  had  been  published  in  1844.  It  is  not  possible 
to  prove  that  Davis  had  read  the  book,  and  he  himself 
expressly  denies  having  done  so.  But  the  ideas  contained  in 
it  were,  at  any  rate,  public  property.  Given  a  memory  of 
extraordinary  retentiveness  for  words  and  phrases,  and  the 
capacity  to  understand  and  reproduce  current  social,  scientific 
and  philosophic  conceptions,  and  it  is  at  least  possible  to 
understand  how  Davis's  Revelations  came  into  existence. 
All  the  materials  were  at  hand. 

But  Davis  claimed  to  have  derived  the  matter  of  his 
revelations  from  direct  intuition,  and  asserts  that  up  to  the 
time  of  their  publication  he  had  read  no  book  except  a 
trivial  novel,  The  Three  Spaniards.  In  his  AutobiograpJiy  he 
dwells  frequently  on  the  meagreness  of  his  schooling,  a  few 
months  at  most,  which  sufficed  for  even  less  than  the  beggarly 
elements,  and  makes  several  ingenious  attempts  to  explain 
away  the  evidence  of  book  learning.  Apart,  however,  from 
the  enormous  improbability  involved  in  the  claim,  we  have 
direct  proof  that  the  clairvoyant's  statements  are  not 
accurate.  An  early  friend,  the  Rev.  A,  Bartlett,  who  had 
known  the  boy  intimately  from  1842  to  1845,  says  that  he 

''  possessed  an  inquiring  mind,  loved  books,  especially  controversial 
religious  works,  which  he  always  preferred  when  he  could  borrow 
them,  and  obtain  leisure  for  their  perusal.  Hence  he  was  indebted  to 
his  individual  exertions  for  some  creditable  advances  which  he  made  in 
knowledge."  ' 

'  Nature's  Divine  Revelations  (Introduction),  p.  x.  Davis  in  his  Auto- 
biography (pp.  199,  200),  referring  to  this  passage,  says  that  he  borrowed 
the  books  to  lend  them  to  his  frieiiJs,  but  had  neither  time  nor  inclina- 
tion to  read  them  himself. 


230     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

Further,  Bush  states  that  in  a  letter  written  to  him  from 
Poughkeepsie  before  the  pubh'cation  of  the  Revelations  Davis 
quoted  a  passage  from  Swcdcnborg's  Arcana  Ctv/cstia,  giving 
the  exact  reference.  Again,  the  coincidence  in  the  language 
between  the  Revelations  and  Swedenborg's  writings  in  certain 
passages  is,  according  to  Bush,  "all  but  absolutely  verbal."  ^ 
In  some  of  Davis's  later  works,  written  in  what  is  claimed  to 
have  been  the  "superior  condition"  under  s[)iritual  impression, 
two  or  three  cases  of  wholesale  plagiarism  have  been  detected.^ 

It  may  be  taken,  then,  that  the  book  is  the  result  of  the 
reading  and  pondering  of  an  imperfectly  trained  mind, 
equipped  with  a  memory  of  extraordinary  retentiveness,  and 
liable  to  be  rapt  into  a  condition  of  spontaneous  ecstasy,  in 
which  the  intellectual  powers  reached  a  high  degree  of 
exaltation.  The  larger  outlines  have  been  seized  and 
reproduced  with  something  more  than  mechanical  accuracy  ; 
the   student   has    made   them    his   own   and  enlarged  their 

'  Letters  to  the  t^ns:  York  Tribune,  November  15,  1846,  and  August  i, 
1847. 

'  The  most  striking  case  of  the  kind  is  the  paralleHsm  of  certain 
passages  in  the  Great  Harmonia  (vol.  iii.,  pubhshcd  in  1852)  and  in 
Sunderland's  Palhetism  (1847).  That  Davis  siiould  have  deliberately 
copied  those  passages,  half  a  page  at  a  time,  and  that  he  should  have 
chosen  for  the  purpose  a  book  written  by  a  fellow-believer,  which  con- 
tained, moreover,  a  criticism  on  his  own  writings,  and  would  certainly 
be  familiar  to  many  of  those  who  read  his  own  book,  argues  a  want  of 
foresight  which  is  scarcely  credible.  See  Sunderland,  The  Trance, 
p.  104  ;  and  compare  The  Great  Harmonia,  vol.  iii.  pp.  92,  93,  96,  loi, 
102,  136,  with  Pathetism,  pp.  74,  75,  105,  loi,  102,  iii.  See  also,  for 
other  cases,  Mattison,  Spirit  Rappings,  &.C.,  pp.  121,  122,  126  ;  Asa  Mahan, 
Modern  Mysteries,  &c.,  p.  30.  In  Human  Nature  (London,  1868),  vol.  ii. 
p.  321,  the  authoress  of  Primcvval  Man,  an  "inspirational"  work  pub- 
lished in  1864,  shows  that  Davis,  in  his  Arabula  (1867),  had  quoted 
several  paragraphs  from  the  earlier  book  with  a  few  verbal  alterations. 
Davis,  writing  to  Human  Nature  later  in  the  same  year  (p.  407),  explains 
that  he  got  perplexed  in  the  proof-reading  by  various  quotation  marks 
which  had  been  misplaced,  and  that  he  imagined  himself  in  this  passage 
to  have  summarised  the  views  of  the  authoress,  not  to  have  made  a 
direct  quotation.  He  further  excuses  his  mistake  by  pointing  out  that 
if  he  cannot  claim  the  credit  of  the  passage  referred  to,  neither  can  his 
victim,  since  her  book  was  admittedly  "  inspirational."  Davis,  in  his 
Autobiography  (p.  451),  deals  with  Mahan's  charge  of  plagiarism. 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   PROPHETS       231 

interpretation.  But  details  have  been  imperfectly  mastered, 
and  the  scientific  vocabulary  is  hopelessly  at  fault.^ 

Davis  cannot,  of  course,  be  wholly  acquitted  of  disingenuous- 
ness  in  the  matter.  But  his  preposterous  claim  that  the  book 
was  evolved  wholly  out  of  his  inner  consciousness,  though  it 
no  doubt  originated  in  the  inordinate  vanity  characteristic  of 
prophets,  does  not  perhaps  imply  so  deliberate  a  falsehood  as 
would  be  implied  in  the  case  of  a  normally  constituted  mind. 
It  is  not  possible  to  judge  such  a  case  by  ordinary  rules. 
The  state  of  trance  in  which  he  dictated  the  Revelations 
was  essentially  an  abnormal  one,  and  it  seems  not  unlikely 
that  there  may  have  been  some  dissociation  of  consciousness 
even  in  his  ordinary  life.  His  memory  of  the  mere  mechanical 
act  of  reading  may  have  been  half  obliterated  by  spontaneous 
ecstasies,  such  as  he  describes  more  than  once  in  his  Auto- 
biography, in  which  all  that  he  had  learnt,  from  whatever 
source,  was  fused  together  and  transformed  into  a  kind  of 
apocalyptic  vision.  At  any  rate,  it  seems  clear  that  in  com- 
posing and  dictating  the  Revelations  he  wielded  intellectual 
powers  of  far  wider  range  than  those  which  sufficed  for  his 
daily  needs — he  was,  to  that  extent,  inspired  in  his  work. 

Originally,  like  other  prophets,  he  claimed  infallibility  for 
his  utterances  in  the  superior  condition.  But  his  critics  were 
quick  to  point  out  that  he  had  claimed  a  like  infallibility  for 
his  earlier  work,  on  Clairmativeness,  and  that  the  views  of  the 
two  books  on  the  subject  of  Christianity  were  irreconcilable. 
Later,  Davis  modified  his  claim  to  infallibility,  and  prefaced 
his  utterances  in  the  superior  state  with  "  I  am  impressed." 

In  Nature's  Divine  Revelations  Davis  makes  merely  a 
passing  reference  to  the  phenomenon  of  disease.  But  he  had 
begun  his  public  career  as  a  clairvoyant  healer,  and  he  con- 
tinued for  many  years  to  practise  healing.  When,  after  the 
publication  of  his  great  work,  his  friends  established  a  paper 

'  The  section  of  the  book  which  describes  the  geological  progression 
contains  a  wild  hotch-potch  of  technical  terms,  names  of  species,  and 
statements  of  fact  or  theory,  imperfectly  understood,  and  still  more 
imperfectly  remembered.  Some  quotations  are  given  in  the  author's 
Modern  Spiritualism,  vol.  i.  pp.  161,  162. 


232    MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

— the  Univercceluvi — to  form  the  mouthpiece  of  the  new  philo- 
sophy, the  prophet's  first  contribution  consisted  of  a  series  of 
papers  on  specific  diseases  and  their  treatment,  afterwards 
republished  as  vol,  i.  of  the  Great  Harmonia,  under  the 
title,  The  Physician.  In  this  work  he  expounds  his  philo- 
sophy of  the  subject. 

"  Disease,"  he  tells  us,  "is  a  want  of  equilibrium  in  the  circulation  of 
the  spiritual  principle  throu^^h  the  physical  organisation.  In  plainer 
languajTc,  disease  is  a  discord,  and  the  discord  must  exist  primarily 
in  the  spiritual  forces  by  wliicli  the  organism  is  actuated  and  governed." 

In  order  to  heal  this  disease  the  original  spiritual  harmony 
must  be  restored.  Cathartics,  injections,  leeches,  blisters, 
the  lancet,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  physician's  armoury  arc 
"  unqualifiedly  erroneous  "  ;  doctors  distinjjuish  hundreds  of 
diseases,  but  all  are  variations  of  one,  and  that  one  "  is  not 
an  entity,  not  a  something  to  fight  down  with  medicinal 
weapons,"  but  a  discord. 

Like  all  prophets  of  the  period,  Davis  had  a  message  to 
deliver  on  the  relations  between  the  se.xes.  His  enemies 
accused  him  of  free-love.  His  own  statement  of  his  views 
is  that  for  each  man  or  woman  there  is  waiting  the  pre- 
destined partner,  the  perfect  complement  of  his  nature. 
When  the  two  come  together  their  union  is  indissoluble. 
Until,  however,  that  spiritual  affinity  is  discovered,  he  would 
permit  a  certain  freedom  of  divorce.  Davis  himself  was 
twice  married.  His  first  wife,  a  lady  some  years  older 
than  himself,  who  had  assisted  to  finance  his  early  publica- 
tions, died  a  few  years  after  marriage.  The  prophet  then 
discovered  his  spiritual  affinity  in  a  lady  who,  unfortunately, 
had  a  husband  living.  But  Davis  had  the  courage  of  his 
convictions,  and  as  both  parties  were  quite  willing  to 
recognise  the  prophet's  prior  claim,  an  Indiana  divorce 
was  arranged.  The  affair,  however,  caused  some  scandal, 
and,  no  doubt,  alienated  from  Davis  many  of  his  followers. 
A  certain  scandal  in  connection  with  his  first  marriage  had 
formed  the  beginning  of  the  rupture  with  the  poet  Thomas 
Lake  Harris,  who  had  at  the  outset  yielded  implicit  allegiance 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   PROPHETS       233 

to  the  youthful  seer's  inspiration.  The  rupture  in  that  case 
was,  however,  sooner  or  later  inevitable.  For  to  Harris,  no 
doubt,  had  already  come  dim  forewarnings  of  a  long  career 
as  a  prophet  on  his  own  account. 

Davis  in  any  case  was  the  least  of  all  the  prophets,  and  his 
inspiration,  such  as  it  was,  soon  deserted  him — 

"He  sang  himself  hoarse  to  the  stars  very  early. 
And  cracked  a  weak  voice  with  too  lofty  a  tune." 

His  followers  were  never  numerous,  nor,  except  at  the  outset, 
enthusiastic.  His  theological  scheme,  as  will  have  been  seen, 
is  derived  from  Swedenborg,  and  in  temperament  he  strongly 
resembled  the  Swedish  seer.  But  not  even  Swedenborg's 
religion  was  so  matter-of-fact ;  and  his  horizons,  of  course, 
were  far  wider.  The  poverty  of  blood  which  marked  poor 
Andrew  Jackson's  childhood  was  reflected  in  his  spiritual  life. 
Surely  to  few  other  seers  has  been  granted  so  limited  and  so 
purblind  a  vision  of  things  celestial.  He  was  almost  wholly 
lacking  in  passion,  human  or  Divine.  His  ideal  of  conduct 
was  an  emasculated  stoicism,  his  highest  virtue  a  milk-and- 
watery  benevolence,  his  God  a  progressive  nebula. 


:^^ 

s:**'^^'^'- 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THOMAS    LAKE    HARRIS 

His  character  and  early  years— His  inspired  preaching— In  1867  he 
founds  the  Community  of  Rrocton — Career  of  liis  chief  disciple, 
Laurence  Olipliant — Brc:icli  between  Harris  and  Oliphant — Harris's 
doctrines  :  the  Inner  Brealliint^,  Rej^c-ncration,  the  Celestial  Marriage, 
Immortality,  a  social  and  religious  Millennium — His  "inspired"  poems. 

THE  prophet  whose  career  we  have  next  to  consider, 
Thomas  Lake  Harris,  the  companion  and  disciple 
for  a  time  of  the  youthful  Andrew  Jackson  Davis, 
belonged  to  a  different  type.  He  was  a  man  not  merely 
of  intellectual  distinction,  but  of  marked  spiritual  force. 
His  "  inspired  "  lyrics,  whatever  their  deficiencies,  are  cha- 
racterised generally  by  an  exquisite  verbal  melody.  His 
mystical  prose  writings,  notwithstanding  frequent  inco- 
herences and  extravagances,  have  the  note  of  literature, 
and  rise  frequently,  when  informed  by  pity  or  indignation, 
to  passages  of  real  beauty.  This,  in  fact,  is  the  feature  which 
distinguishes  Harris  from  the  other  "  inspired  "  writers  of  the 
last  two  generations.  He  was  a  man  at  his  best  of  generous 
human  instincts  and  full  of  a  passionate  idealism.  In  a  more 
fortunate  age  he  might  have  led  a  Crusade,  have  lashed  him- 
self into  a  saint,  or  won  a  martyr's  death.  His  ambiguous 
career,  the  gradual  degeneration  and  hardening  of  his  cha- 
racter, represent  a  reaction,  perhaps  inevitable,  from  a  more 
complex  social  environment.  He  came  too  late  into  too  old 
a  world. 

Thomas  Lake  Harris  was  born  at  Fenny  Stratford,  Bucks, 
in  1823.     Thence  four  years  later  he  went  with  his  parents  to 


THOMAS   LAKE   HARRIS  235 

America,  where  the  rest  of  his  h'fe  was  spent.  His  childhood 
was  comforted  by  visions.  When  about  eighteen  years  of 
age  the  image  of  his  dead  mother  appeared  to  him  in  a 
trance,  and  impressed  upon  his  mind,  as  he  tells  us,  the 
central  truth,  that  God  is  our  Father  and  all  men  our 
brothers.  In  1844  he  became  a  preacher  in  the  Universalist 
denomination.  His  attitude  to  the  revelations  of  Andrew 
Jackson  Davis  has  already  been  recorded.  In  1848,  after 
the  break  with  the  Poughkeepsie  seer,  he  became  the 
minister  of  an  Independent  Church.  To  the  same  year 
belongs  his  first  automatic  or  "  inspirational "  production, 
a  sermon  on  the  text  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto 
Me,"  which  produced  a  profound  impression,  and  indirectly 
led  to  the  founding  of  the  New  York  Juvenile  Asylum. ^ 
Harris  never  made  a  profession  of  healing,  but  both  at  this 
date  and  later  he  occasionally  exercised  the  gift  of  curing 
ailments  by  laying  on  of  hands  and  prayer.  It  is,  of  course, 
generally  characteristic  of  the  prophets  of  this  period  that 
they  were  healers  as  well  as  teachers.  In  Harris's  case  the 
connection  was  more  intimate  ;  for,  as  will  be  shown  later, 
in  his  philosophy  the  regeneration  of  the  spirit  involved  the 
rejuvenescence  of  the  body.  For  some  time  during  the  years 
1850-1853  Harris  was  associated  with  one  James  Scott,  a 
minister  of  the  sect  of  Seventh  Day  Baptists.  Scott,  under 
professedly  Divine  inspiration,  founded  in  185 1  a  Socialist 
Community  at  Mountain  Cove,  Virginia,  and  Harris  for  a 
time  joined  him  there,  and  was  named  in  Scott's  inspirational 
utterances  as  joint  leader.  The  word  of  the  Lord  through 
the  mouth  of  Scott  had,  however,  prior  apparently  to  Harris's 
appearance  on  the  scene,  required  the  disciples  to  divest 
themselves  of  all  their  worldly  goods,  and  hand  them  over 
to  the  head  of  the  Community.  The  natural  man  rebelled 
against  the  enforcement  of  the  inspired  decree,  and  the  Com- 
munity finally  broke  up  in  1853.  The  history  of  the  Com- 
munity is  so  fragmentary  and  obscure  that  it  is  impossible  to 

'  These  and  other  details  of  Harris's  early  life  are  taken  from  The 
Brolherhood  of  the  New  Life  and  Thomas  Lake  Harris,  by  R.  McCulIy 
(Glasgow,  1893). 


236    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

discover  how  far  Harris  was  directly  implicated  in  Scott's 
proceedings.^ 

In  1858  appeared  the  first  of  Harris's  "inspirational" 
poems,  A  Lyric  of  the  Alorning  Land,  followed  a  year  or  two 
later  by  the  Lyric  of  the  Golden  Age.  In  1857  was  published 
the  first  of  his  prose  writings,  The  Arcana  of  Christianity,  in 
which  he  definitely  broke  away  from  the  orthodox  Swedcn- 
borgianism  which  he  appears  to  have  professed  for  some 
years  previously.  His  claim  in  effect  was  that  to  him  had 
been  revealed  the  "  celestial "  sense  of  the  Bible,  whereas 
Swedenborg  had  been  permitted  to  know  only  the  inferior 
spiritual  interpretation.  The  book  purported  to  be  the 
product  of  direct  inspiration  from  "the  Lord."  In  1859 
Harris  came  to  England  and  there  delivered  a  course  of 
sermons  on  the  new  doctrine.  Of  these  sermons  a  witness 
who  will  scarcely  be  accused  of  a  favourable  bias  writes  that 
they  are 

"  of  a  very  remarkable  character — full  of  lofty  enthusiasm ;  ,  .  .  not 
even  the  most  careless  could  be  unimpressed  by  the  fervent  and  living 
nobility  of  faith,  the  high  spiritual  indignation  against  wrong-doing 
.  .  .  with  which  the  dingy  pages,  badly  printed  upon  bad  paper,  and 
in  the  ineanot  form,  still  burn  and  glow."' 

On  his  return  to  America  a  year  or  two  later  we  find  the 
prophet  in  a  new  capacity  as  a  practical  farmer,  and  Presi- 
dent of  the  first  National  Bank  of  Amenia,  Dutchess  Co., 
New  York.  The  impulse  for  Community  building  was, 
however,  strong  within  him,  and  in  1867  he  and  his  disciples 
— for  he  had  for  some  years  past  been  forming  round  him  the 
Brotherhood  of  the  New  Life — purchased  a  tract  of  1,600 
acres  at  Biocton,  Chautauqua  Co.,  on  the  south  shores 
of  the  Lake   Erie.      Harris,  it  is  said,  laid   down  half  the 

'  The  whole  episode  is  passed  over  by  McCuUy.  For  some  account 
of  the  Mountain  Cove  Community  see  Noyes,  History  of  American 
Socialisms,  pp.  568-574,  Capron,  Modern  Spiritualism  (1855),  chap,  vi., 
and  other  Spiritualist  sources. 

Life  0/  Laurence  Olipltani,  vol.  ii.  p.  4,  by  Margaret  O.  W.  Oliphant. 
The  well-known  novelist,  who  wrote  the  Life,  was  only  a  distant  cousin 
of  Laurence  Oliphant,  and  did  not  share  his  peculiar  views. 


THOMAS   LAKE   HARRIS  237 

purchase  money,  his  associates  finding  the  rest.  From  this 
date  until  his  death,  which  took  place  at  Santa  Rosa  in  1906, 
he  lived  entirely  within  the  walls  of  the  Community,  direct- 
ing its  affairs  with  a  strong  hand,  and  busied  meanwhile  in 
the  constant  inditing  of  inspired  books. 

The  Community  of  Brocton,  when  visited  in  1869  by  a 
reporter  of  the  New  York  Stm,^  consisted  of  some  sixty 
adult  members,  besides  a  number  of  children.  Amongst  the 
adults  were  five  clergymen,  some  American  ladies  of  good 
social  position,  and  some  Japanese.^  But  the  most  interest- 
ing members  of  the  young  Community  were  Lady  Oliphant, 
the  widow  of  an  ex-Chief  Justice  of  Ceylon,  and  her  only 
son.  Laurence  Oliphant,  who  was  at  this  date  just  forty 
years  of  age,  had  had  an  interesting  and  varied  career.  He 
had  travelled  much  in  little  known  parts  of  the  world,  and 
the  books  in  which  he  described  what  he  had  seen  had  earned 
for  him  a  considerable  reputation.  He  had  held  various 
diplomatic  appointments  ;  he  had  been  private  secretary 
to  Lord  Elgin  during  his  viceroyalty  of  Canada  ;  he  had 
accompanied  his  chief  on  special  missions  to  Washington 
and  Tokio,  and  had  later  been  first  Secretary  of  Legation 
in  Japan.  Wherever  there  had  been  war  or  political  dis- 
turbances— the  Crimea,  Poland,  Italy — Oliphant  had  rushed 
to  the  spot  to  see  the  fun,  sometimes  to  take  part  in  it,  but 
always  to  observe  and  record  it.  He  had  been  special 
correspondent  for  the  Times  in  the  Crimea  and  elsewhere. 
He  knew  everybody  from  royalty  downwards  who,  in  the 
current  phrase,  was  worth  knowing,  and  would  seem  to  have 
done  almost  everything  that  was  worlh  doing. 

In  1865  Oliphant  was  elected  M.P.  for  the  Stirling 
Burghs,  and  his  friends  expected  that  a  man  of  such  brilliant 
parts,  a  ready  and  practised  speaker,  with  exceptional  first- 
hand knowledge  of  foreign  affairs,  would  have  a  distinguished 

'  The  report  is  quoted  in  Noyes's  History  of  American  Socialisms, 
pp.  578-586. 

*  It  is  stated  that  Harris  had  been  a  member  of  the  American  Lega- 
tion in  Japan  in  1861  ;  see  Mrs.  Ohphant's  Life  of  Laurence  Oliphant, 
vol.  ii.  p.  I,  note. 


238     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

career  before  him.  He  falsified  all  expectations  by  maintain- 
ing during  the  two  years  of  his  parliamentary  life  an 
unbroken  silence.  He  had  already  met  his  Master,  and  this 
silence  had  been  imposed  upon  him  as  the  first  pledge  of 
implicit  obedience.  In  the  autumn  of  1867  the  time  had  come, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  autocrat,  for  a  more  severe  probation. 
Oliphant  suddenly  disappeared  from  the  political  and  social 
world,  not  returning  to  London  until  some  three  years  later, 
in  1870.  He  had  been  summoned  by  Thomas  Lake  Harris 
to  Brocton.  On  his  arrival  there  he  was  set  forthwith  to 
clean  out  a  stable.  The  task  must  have  been  of  Augean 
dimensions,  for  we  are  told  that  it  occupied  many  days  of 
absolute  loneliness.  He  slept  in  a  loft,  furnished  only  with  a 
mattress  and  some  empty  orange-boxes.  During  all  those 
weary  days  he  spoke  to  no  one  ;  his  very  meals  were  brought 
to  him  in  the  midst  of  his  repulsive  surroundings  by  a  silent 
messenger.  Mother  and  son  were  devoted  to  each  other,  and 
had  passed  all  their  lives  in  the  most  intimate  communion. 
But  in  the  eyes  of  the  prophet  the  bonds  of  natural  affection 
constituted  the  strongest  obstacle  to  spiritual  growth,  and 
Lady  Oliphant  and  her  son  were  allowed  to  meet  but  rarely, 
and  then  only  as  mere  acquaintances. 

Oliphant  acted  as  war  correspondent  for  the  Times 
during  the  Franco-German  War,  but  always  holding  himself 
in  readiness  to  return  to  Brocton  on  a  summons  from  Harris. 
In  1872  he  met  his  future  wife.  The  affair  was  immediately 
laid  before  the  Master,  who  for  long  withheld  his  consent 
to  marriage.  But  the  lady  made  her  complete  submission 
to  the  prophet  and  placed  all  her  property  unreservedly  in  his 
hands,  to  dispose  of  as  he  thought  fit.  The  marriage  was  then 
permitted  to  take  place.  Shortly  after  Lady  Oliphant  and 
the  young  couple  were  summoned  to  Brocton  ;  the  two 
ladies  were  set  to  do  housework,  and  Oliphant  was  despatched 
to  New  York  to  labour  for  the  Community  as  director  of  a 
Cable  Company.  For  years  the  prophet  contrived  to  keep 
husband  and  wife  apart,  each  willingly  acquiescing  in  the 
burden  laid  upon  them.  For  a  space  of  three  years  Oliphant 
was  not  permitted  to  see  his  wife  at  all ;  she  during  that  time 


THOMAS   LAKE   HARRIS  239 

had  been  sent  out  of  the  Community  penniless  and  alone  to 
earn  her  living — and  had  gone  gladly.  In  1S80  they  were  per- 
mitted to  rejoin  each  other  in  Europe.  Meanwhile  Harris 
had  bought  fresh  territory  and  had  migrated  with  part  of  the 
Community  to  Santa  Rosa,  California.  There  some  scandal 
arose  because  of  his  relations  with  a  lady  whom  he  after- 
wards married.  Oliphant  went  over  in  1881  to  find  his 
mother  dying.  Her  death,  the  rumours  against  the  prophet's 
fair  fame,  and  other  causes  at  length  broke  the  spell,  and 
Oliphant  threw  off  the  allegiance  which  had  bound  him  for 
more  than  sixteen  years.  His  friends  with  difficulty 
recovered  the  property  which  he  had  invested  in  the 
Community. 

It  is  by  the  mere  accident  of  his  social  position  and  his 
literary  connections  that  we  have  so  full  a  record  of  the 
enslavement  of  Oliphant  and  two  members  of  his  family. 
From  the  vague  rumours  which  have  reached  the  outer  world 
there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  sway  exercised  by  Harris 
over  the  rest  of  the  Community  was  less  autocratic.  But  the 
very  circumstances  which  gave  him  such  absolute  dominion 
over  the  few  who  were  fit  to  become  disciples  necessarily  pre- 
vented any  wide  diffusion  of  that  dominion.  In  fact,  Harris's 
gospel  admitted  of  no  compromise.  Those  who  listened  to 
the  message  were  bidden  to  come  out  from  the  world,  to 
give  up  all  worldly  possessions,  to  break  all  human  ties, 
and  to  undergo  a  long  and  severe  probation,  to  fit  them  for 
the  higher  Use.  But  his  influence  was  by  no  means  confined 
within  the  narrow  radius  of  the  Brocton  Community.  His 
writings,  indeed,  never  attained  a  wide  circulation  ;  they 
were  not  distributed  through  the  ordinary  channels.  They 
were  not,  in  fact,  sold  at  all.  To  any  inquirer,  however,  who 
was  adjudged  fitted  for  its  reception  the  printed  word  of  the 
new  revelation  was  given  freely,  under  certain  restrictions  as 
to  secrecy.  In  this  way  Harris  obtained  some  following  in 
this  country.  His  disciples  throughout  the  world  are  said  to 
have  numbered  thousands. 

Harris's  teaching  occupies  a  position  in  some  respects 
intermediate  between  that  of  Davis  and  the  later  gospel  of 


240    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

Christian  Science.  Like  the  Divine  Revelations,  Harris's 
theolor^y  was  essentially  a  development  from  Sweden- 
borgianism.  But  he  accepted  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible 
and  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  whilst  claiming  for  himself,  as 
already  stated,  a  higher  place  amongst  the  prophets  than 
Swedenborg. 

Harris's  prose  writings  consist  mainly  of  the  interpretation, 
in  accordance  with  the  revelation  specially  accorded  to  him, 
of  the  Bible,  especially  of  the  Apocalypse.  His  charac- 
teristic tenet  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall  and  the  nature  of  the 
subsequent  Regeneration.  "  God  manifested  in  the  Flesh  is 
not  Male  merely  nor  Female  merely,  but  the  Two  in  One 
...  in  whose  spiritual  and  physical  likeness  we  seek  to  be 
reborn."  ^  Elsewhere  he  speaks  of  our  Father  and  our 
Mother  God.^  Before  the  Fall,  Man  and  Woman  were  con- 
joined in  the  likeness  of  God.  At  the  Fall  this  bi-.sexual 
unity  was  divided.  The  idea  is,  of  course,  a  modern  re-state- 
ment of  an  old  Platonic  myth.  Again,  as  a  sequel  to  the 
Fall,  mankind  lost  the  faculty  of  internal  respiration. 
Originall}',  they  had  been  connected  with  the  Divine  Nature 
by  a  kind  of  respiratory  umbilical  cord,  through  which  the 
whole  spiritual  nature  was  nourished  and  strengthened.  The 
first  and  essential  step  towartls  Regeneration  is  the  recovery 
of  this  dormant  faculty  of  Inner  Breathing.  It  is  a  fact  that 
Harris,  Laurence  Oliphant,  and  other  members  of  the  Society 
claimed  to  exercise,  not  continuously  but  fitfully,  this  faculty 
of  Inner  Breathing.  I  have  myself  talked  with  persons  in 
this  country  who  claimed  it.  It  is  probable  that  the  claim 
was  based  on  actual  physical  sensations — the  Inner  Breath- 
ing possibly  consisted  in  a  more  extensive  use  of  the 
diaphragm  and  the  respiratory  apparatus  generally.  Dr. 
Garth  Wilkinson  testifies  that  Harris's  chest  was  peculiarly 
formed.  On  first  examination,  it  appeared  weak  and  con- 
tracted— the  sternum   depressed,   the   lower   ribs    folded    in 

'  Letter  from  Harris  to  W.  A.  Hinds,  in  1877,  quoted  by  McCully 
{Broiherltood  of  the  New  Life,  p.  132). 

'  And  again,  "  God  the  Wife  is  the  Mother  of  us  all  "  (The  Lord,  the 
Two  in  One,  p.  92). 


THOMAS   LAKE   HARRIS  241 

under  each  other.  But  it  was  capable  of  enormous  expan- 
sion. "  I  never  saw  such  capacity  of  respiration  in  any  other 
person."  ' 

When  the  continual  influx  of  spiritual  power  had  been 
re-established  by  the  full  development  of  the  Inner  Breath- 
ing the  Regeneration  would  be  complete ;  the  true  union  of 
the  sexes  would  be  restored,  and  death  would  be  overcome. 
In  the  letter  already  quoted  Harris  explains  to  a  sympathetic 
inquirer  that  "among  my  people,  as  they  enter  into  the 
peculiar  physical  evolution  that  constitutes  the  new  life,  two 
things  decrease — the  propagation  of  the  species  and  physical 
death."  He  proceeds  to  quote  statistics  in  support  of 
these  assertions.  Some  years  later,  in  June,  1891,  Harris 
claims  to  have  realised  the  spiritual  and  physical  regenera- 
tion in  his  own  person  ;  the  Inner  Breathing,  he  writes,  is 
now  completely  established  ;  his  own  body  has  regained  the 
outward  semblance  and  internal  vigour  of  youth.  "  He  is 
re-incorporated  into  the  potency  and  promise  of  psycho- 
physical immortality.  He  is  in  the  youth  and  spring  and 
morning  of  the  new  existence." 

During  these  latter  years,  he  explains,  he  had  been  engaged 
in  studying  the  problem  "  By  what  process  shall  man  over- 
come the  universal  racial  tendency  towards  physical  deterio- 
ration and  decease  ?  .  .  .  how,  in  a  word,  without  passing 
through  physical  decease  shall  man  practically  embody  and 
realise  the  resurrection  ?"  2  It  was  the  shock  to  Oliphant's 
faith  caused  by  the  discovery  that  the  prophet  could  not 
avert  death  from  one  of  his  most  faithful  disciples  that  is 
said  to  have  been  partly  responsible  for  the  breach  between 
the  two  men. 

Harris  had  already,  some  years  previously,  claimed  to  have 


'  Quoted  by  McCully,  op.  cit.,  p.  67.  The  doctrine  of  Internal  Breath- 
ing is  derived  from  Swedenborg, 

»  Brotherhood  of  the  New  Life,  a.  pamphlet  by  Harris.  As  regards  the 
claim  to  physical  rejuvenation,  see  the  description  given  by  Laurence 
Oliphant  in  his  Masollam  of  the  hero's  extraordinary  power  of  passing 
at  will  from  the  apparent  feebleness  of  age  to  the  full  vigour  of  man- 
hood.   "  Masollam"  is  understood  to  be  a  portrait  of  T.  L.  Harris. 

R 


242     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

been  united  in  a  true  mystical  marriage  with  his  celestial 
counterpart,  the  Lily  Queen.'  But  the  ordinary  union  of 
the  sexes  he  regarded  as  a  hindrance  to  spiritual  regenera- 
tion. It  was  not  absolutely  forbidden  to  the  neophyte,  but 
it  was  discouraged,  and  the  prophet,  as  we  have  seen,  con- 
sistently set  himself  to  keep  married  persons  apart,  and  to 
prevent  the  natural  fruit  of  the  union.  For  marriage  on  the 
natural  plane,  the  normal  human  union  of  the  sexes,  was  a 
direct  consequence  of  the  Fall — a  "  terrible  "  thing,  as  it  is 
called  in  a  letter  written  under  Harris's  direction  to  Lady 
Oliphant;^  "so  long  as  men  are  unregenerated  there  is  no 
absolute  purity  in  any  sex  relation."  3 

"  We  think,"  he  writes  elsewhere,  "  that  generation  must  cease  until 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  God  are  prepared  for  the  higher  generation 
by  revolution  into  structural  bi-scxual  completeness,  above  the  plane  of 
sin,  of  disease,  and  of  natural  mortulity." * 

As  already  said,  Harris's  writings  strike  a  note  which  is 
almost  wholly  wanting  in  the  utterances  of  the  other 
"  prophets  "  of  his  generation.  We  find  him  in  a  passionate 
indignation  against  wrong-doing  ;  a  passionate  realisation 
of  the  ineffectual  struggles  and  sufferings  of  mankind  ;  an 
altogether  human  sense  of  tragedy  and  pity,  and  of  human 
fellowship. 

"  One  almost  sees,"  he  writes,  "  the  Lord  uplifted  in  spirit  upon 
that  great  industrial  cross,  whereon  His  faith  was  to  be  crucified  through 
nineteen  centuries  of  inversion  in  the  broken  hearts  and  bleeding 
bodies  of  the  innumerable  toilers  of  the  globe."  * 

Here,  again,  is  a  passage  from  The  Lord  the  Two  in 
One:— 

'  See  The  Lord  the  Two  in  One,  published  in  1876. 

'  Life  of  Oliphant,  vol.  ii.  p.  93. 

3  Arcana  of  Christianity  :  the  Apocalypse,  vol.  i.  p.  156. 

*  Letter  to  Hinds,  McCully,  op.  cit.,  p.  131.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  Oliphant  himself  in  his  later  mystical  writings — Sympneumata 
and  Scientific  Religion — preached  a  somewhat  similar  view  of  marriage. 

5  Arcana  of  Christianity :  the  Apocalypse  (1867),  vol.  i.  p.  199. 


THOMAS   LAKE   HARRIS  243 

"Aspiration  when  it  falls  into  the  power  of  circumstance  is  an 
angel  broken  upon  the  wheel.  We  are  slaves  of  the  events.  The 
years  make  wholesale  slaughter  among  the  sons  of  God.  Paradise  is 
always  suspended  in  the  atmosphere.  There  are  two  Kingdoms  of 
God  :  one  within,  waiting  to  come  forth  ;  one  above,  waiting  to  come 
down.  When  the  Divine  Humanity  meets  Divine  Society,  that  which 
is  within  shall  have  come  forth,  and  that  which  is  above  shall  have 
descended.  This  shall  be  the  end  of  every  captivity,  the  Marriage  of 
the  Earth  and  skies. 

"Our  hopes  by  their  vastness  put  to  scorn  the  littleness  of  our 
performance.  What  is  Hamlet,  what  the  sad  and  splendid  procession 
of  the  Shakespearean  drama,  when  measured  by  the  great  and  awful 
tragedy  of  humanity  ?  We  travel  over  the  deserts  of  the  world's  broken 
hopes.  What  valour  and  vigour  of  virtue,  what  wealth  of  learning, 
what  holiness  of  philanthropy  poured  themselves  through  the  French 
Revolution  !  What  angels  descended  into  the  bottomless  pit  of  dead 
corrupted  monarchy  !  Earth's  holiest  word.  Fraternity,  the  word  that 
makes  Heaven  vibrate  responsive  with  each  kindred  Heaven,  the  word 
Fraternity,  which  contains  in  itself  the  essence  of  all  Gospels,  and  the 
fulfilment  of  all  Revelation,  was  preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison,  and 
Hades  seemed  for  a  moment  to  open  its  bosom  to  the  advent  of 
immortal  life.  Yet  the  end  came  :  the  Angel  descended  to  the  grave  of 
buried  Abel,  to  call  him  from  the  ground ;  but  Cain  rose  instead  of 
Abel." » 


Here,    again,   is   a  description  of  mankind    put  into  the 
mouth  of  Christ : — 


"  When  men  see  lambs  upon  the  hillside  perishing  with  cold,  they 
see  the  Nations  of  the  world  as  I  behold  them.  When  men  see  fishes 
of  the  sea  torn  with  hooks,  caught  in  nets  and  impaled  upon  spears, 
they  see  the  people  of  the  nations  as  I  behold  them.  When  men  see 
idiots  gibbering  in  the  market-place,  clothed  in  fantastic  particoloured 
rags  of  finery,  they  see  the  priesthoods  of  the  world  as  I  behold  them. 
When  men  see  butchers  smeared  with  the  blood  of  the  shambles,  and 
dogs  trained  to  tear  the  passer-by,  they  see  the  military  chieftains  of 
the  world  as  I  behold  them." " 


Of  the  regeneration  of  the  individual  we  have  already 
spoken.  But  Harris  did  not  summon  his  followers  to  the 
practice  of  a  barren  holiness.  For  Christ's  Gospel,  he  tells 
us,  was  originally  "  a   great   Health  Service,"  with  Sermons 

»  Pp.  133-135.    Slightly  abridged.  •  Id.,  p.  90. 


244    MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

on  the  Mount  and  the  like  for  accompaniment.  "  The 
Kingdom  of  God,"  he  continues,  "as  it  now  unfolds  in  our 
midst  is  the  same  Use  .  .  .  based  on  production,  organising 
production,  truly  a  sheep-feeding  institution." 

The  spiritual  regeneration,  in  short,  is  to  be  accompanied 
by  a  material  reorganisation,  a  kind  of  glorified  but  rather 
vaguely  indicated  Socialism.     The  new  Gospel 

"proposes  to  serve  men  by  oif^nnising  them  into  the  hierarchy  of 
industries  ;  ...  it  is  the  gospel  of  cotton  and  of  cotton  niills  ;  of  slieep 
and  wool  and  woollen  factories  ;  the  gospel  of  farmhouses  and  farm- 
fields,  of  the  vineyard  and  the  garden.  It  is  the  gospel  of  building 
and  of  all  carpentry  ;  the  gospel  of  the  home  and  all  domestic  eco- 
nomies. It  is  thrift  and  care,  it  creates  and  saves.  ...  It  is  so  full  of 
God  that  its  words  overflow  with  joy  and  hope  into  splendour  and 
happiness  ;  so  full  of  strength,  that  it  rejoices  setting  forth  to  the 
world's  deliverance,  as  the  bridegroom  to  his  nuptials,  or  the  strong 
man  to  run  his  race." 

Such  in  brief  outline  was  the  message  with  which  Harris 
was  charged.  A  few  words  remain  to  be  said  on  the  nature 
of  the  inspiration  which  he  claimed.  The  genesis  of  his  first 
considerable  work,  A  Lyi-ic  of  the  Morning  Land,  a  poem  of 
some  five  thousand  lines,  is  thus  described : — 

"On  the  ist  Jan.,  1854,  at  the  hour  of  noon,  the  archetypal  ideas 
were  internally  inwrought  by  spiritual  agency  into  the  innermost  mind 
of  the  Medium,  he  at  that  time  having  passed  into  a  spiritual  or  interior 
condition.  From  that  time  till  the  fourth  of  August,  fed  by  continual 
intluxes  of  celestial  life,  these  archetypal  ideas  internally  unfolded 
within  his  interior  or  spiritual  self ;  until  at  length,  having  attained  to 
their  maturity,  they  descended  into  the  externals  of  the  mind,  uttered 
themselves  in  speech,  and  were  transcribed  as  spoken  by  the  Medium, 
he,  by  spiritual  agencies,  being  temporarily  elevated  to  the  spiritual 
degree  of  the  mind  for  that  purpose,  and  the  external  form  being 
rendered  quiet  by  a  process  which  is  analogous  to  physical  death. 

"  The  Poem  was  dictated  at  intervals  during  parts  of  about  fourteen 
days,  the  actual  time  occupied  by  its  delivery  beingabout  thirty  hours." 

Harris  claims  that  he  himself  had  "  no  knowledge  or  con- 
ception of  any  part  of  the  poem "  until  it  was  actually 
spoken  by  his  lips. 


THOMAS   LAKE   HARRIS  245 

The  poem  itself  is  characterised  by  a  grandiloquence,  a 
kind  of  intoxication  of  verbosity,  common  to  most "  inspira- 
tional "  writings.  But  the  rhythm  is  nearly  always  well 
maintained,  and  there  are  many  lyric  passages  of  consider- 
able beauty.  It  is,  however,  full  of  echoes  from  earlier 
writers,  as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  young  poets,  "  inspira- 
tional "  or  not.  The  following  extracts  will  give  some  idea 
of  the  poem. 

Here  is  the  opening  stanza  from  the  Hymn  of  Life's  Com- 
pleteness : — 

"Golden  Age  of  Harmony, 

Thou  shalt  from  the  Heaven  descend, 
Earth  shall  rise  and  welcome  thee, 
Man  to  man  be  Angel-friend ; 
And  the  trumpets  that  blow  when  the  Battle's  red  star 
'Whelms  the  world  with  its  blood,  as  it  bursts  from  afar; 
And  the  bugles  that  peal 
To  the  crossing  of  steel, 
When  the  Demon  of  Wrath  drives  his  scythe-armed  car. 
And  the  war-drums  that  roll 
In  the  shock  of  the  battle, 
And  the  death-bells  that  toll 

O'er  men  slaughtered  like  cattle ; 
And  the  death-smitten  eyes  that  look  up  at  the  sun, 
And  see  only  the  cannon-smoke  darkling  and  dun  ; 
And  the  lips  that  in  dying  hurl  curses  at  those 
Whom  the  Father  made  brethren,  but  evil  made  foes ; 
The  death-shot  that  scatters  the  ranks  of  the  flying; 
The  wild,  fierce  hurrah,  when  the  Fratricide  host 
Have  driven  their  brethren  to  Hades'  red  coast — 
They  shall  cease,  they  shall  cease. 
For  the  Angel  of  Peace 
Shall  whiten  the  Earth,  not  with  bones  of  the  slain, 
But  with  flowers  for  the  garland  and  sheaves  for  the  wain." 

Here  are  two  stanzas  from  The  Song  of  Saturn  : — 

"  I  am  the  Patriarch  Star  ;  I  stand 
And  view,  entranced,  that  Wondrous  Land, 
That  worlds  ascend  to  when  they  rise 
From  outward  space  to  inward  skies. 
I  am  the  eldest  child  of  Space, 
And  gaze  into  the  Sun's  bright  face, 
And  in  the  Sun,  prophetic,  see 
My  own  approaching  destiny. 


246    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

I  am  the  Prophet  Orb;  I  gaze 

Through  the  far  Future's  unknown  ways; 

Mysterious  wisdom  thrills  me  deep  ; 

Not  always  shall  Destruction  keep 

A  lingering  foothold,  and  with  curse 

And  wailing  jar  the   Universe  ; 

I  see  the  end  of  Death  and  Sin  ; 

I  see  the  golden  years  begin 

For  happy  Earth,  our  sister  sphere  ; 

Rejoice,  O  Heavens!  her  Spring  is  near." 

And  here,  in  a  less  heroic  vein,  are  some  verses  from  the 
Marriage  of  Apollo : — 

"  Echo,  Echo,  thou  dost  hide 

In  the  mountain  coverts  dim, 
Where  the  spotted  fauns  abide. 

And  the  wood-birds  ciiant  their  hymn, 
Thou  a  sylvan  sprite  shouldst  be. 
Dwelling  with  thy  sisters  three — 
Mild  and  melancholy  Night, 
Glad  and  sparkling  Morning  Light, 
Evening  Lustre  calmly  bright. 
Echo,  Echo,  thou  dost  dwell 
In  some  shady  woodbine  dell. 
Where  the  strawberry,  luscious-sweet, 
Tinges  red  thy  whitest  feet, 
And  the  tendrils  of  the  vine 
Round  thy  temples  twine  and  twine. 

Echo,  Echo,  wake,  I  pray. 

Wave  the  drowsy  sleep  away ; 

I  would  chant  a  mellow  strain 

For  thy  lips  to  breathe  again, 

Where  the  wood-birds  brood  and  haunt, 

Where  the  young  fauns  throb  and  pant, 

Where  the  cowslips  feed  the  bees, 

Where  the  leafy  forest  seas 

Wave  and  ripple  in  the  sun, 

Reaching  t'wards  the  horizon. 

Wake,  sweet  wood-nymphs,  Light  and  Shade- 
One  a  dusky  Indian  Maid, 
One  a  white-browed  Sylph,  with  eyes 
Clear  as  May-dew,  when  it  hes 
Sparkling  in  the  violet's  ear, 
Fairy  diamond  in  its  sphere. 


THOMAS   LAKE   HARRIS  247 

Ye  who  run  your  cheerful  race 
With  the  Seasons,  as  they  pace, 
And  the  golden-footed  Days, 
O'er  the  grand  Titanian  ways — 
Light  and  Shadow,  twins  divine, 
Nursed  at  either  breast   of  Time  : 
Light  that  hides  with  laughing  lips 
In  the  glowing  Sun's  eclipse  ; 
Shade  that  wings  herself  away 
In  the  yellow  blooms  of  day  : 
Come,  sweet  Spirits,  ye  shall  be 
Crowned  with  roses  preciously." 

Of  the  exact  nature  of  the  inspirational  process  in  his  later 
prose  works  I  am  not  aware  that  he  gives  any  account.  But 
it  seems  probable  that  the  process,  as  it  became  more  and 
more  familiar,  became  also  more  fully  conscious,  as  was  the 
case  with  A.  J.  Davis.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Harris's 
"inspiration,"  unlike  that  of  his  predecessors,  owed  nothing 
to  Mesmerism  ;  it  does  not  appear  that  his  trances  or  ecstasies 
were  at  any  time  of  his  life  other  than  spontaneous. 

Of  the  numerous  other  inspired  writers  and  prophets  of 
the  period  two  call  for  a  passing  mention.  Charles  Linton, 
a  young  blacksmith,  a  man  of  good  intelligence  but  very 
limited  education,  after  acting  for  some  time  as  a  medium 
for  the  spirits  of  Daniel  Webster,  William  Shakespeare,  and 
others,  was  called  to  a  loftier  theme.  In  the  course  of  four 
months  in  1853  he  wrote  under  "inspiration" — that  is,  auto- 
matically, and  without  consciousness  on  his  part  of  the 
meaning  of  what  he  was  writing — a  manuscript  containing 
considerably  over  100,000  words,  afterwards  published  under 
the  title  The  Healing  of  the  Nations.  The  book  is  a  kind  of 
religious  rhapsody,  an  ecstatic  outpouring,  without  definite 
plan  or  logical  sequence,  of  ideas  and  imagery  drawn  from 
tlie  Bible  and  various  religious  works.  The  work  is  not 
without  literary  merit  of  a  kind.  The  choice  of  language 
is  mainly  biblical,  and  the  writing  maintains  a  certain  dignity 
and  sonorous  rhythm.  But  it  is  wholly  without  originality  ; 
it  is  a  mere  echo.  Such  as  it  is,  however,  it  is  the  best  of 
the  minor  inspired  gospels  of  the  time.^ 

'  For  some  account  of  these  curious  productions  see  the  author's 
Modern  Spiritualism  (1902),  vol.  i.  pp.  263-282. 


248     MESMERISM  AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

A  prophet  of  a  somewhat  different  type  was  J.  T.  Mahan, 
of  Cincinnati,  a  Magnetic  clairvoyant,  who  "  brought  forth 
a  system  of  physical  and  intellectual  science  "  rivalling  the 
Revelations  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis.  Mahan's  message 
was,  however,  of  a  more  practical  kind.  Under  his  inspired 
leadership  some  wealthy  citizens  of  Cincinnati  formed  a 
Co-operative  Agricultural  Community,  and  purchased  in 
1846  a  large  property  on  the  Ohio  river.  Mahan's  per- 
sonal character,  however,  appears  to  have  degenerated,  and 
the  Community  had  but  a  brief  and  disastrous  existence.' 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  there  were  many  at 
this  period  who  in  all  honesty  claimed  inspiration  from 
superhuman  intelligences,  and  found  no  lack  of  followers 
to  approve  their  claim,  with  credit  and  with  cash. 

•  See  my  Modern  Spintualism,  i.  p.  175,  and  Noyes,  History  of 
American  Socialisms,  p.  374. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  RISE  OF  MENTAL-HEALING 

Common  origin  of  H3fpnotism  and  the  Mind-cure — Phineas  Parkhurst 
Quimby  :  his  career  :  his  practice  in  healing  :  testimonials  from  patients, 
including  Mrs.  Eddy  :  his  philosophy — Disease  an  ancient  delusion — 
Quimby's  disciples:  the  Rev,  W.  F,  Evans,  H.  W.  Dresser,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  New  Thought  Movement — The  doctrines  of  the  New 
Thought :  mental  invasion  or  obsession. 

AS  already  stated,  a  large  number  of  those  who  had 
hitherto  practised  Animal  Magnetism  or  Mesmer- 
ism, whether  in  America  or  Europe,  were  sooner 
or  later  absorbed  in  the  ranks  of  the  Spiritualists.  But  there 
remained  some  whose  interest  in  healing  was  greater  than 
their  love  of  the  marvellous.  From  i860  onwards  the  healers 
again  began  to  be  divided  into  two  camps.  In  both  alike 
the  fluidic  theory,  if  not  altogether  rejected,  has  at  least  been 
allowed  to  sink  into  the  background,  and  attention  is  being 
more  and  more  concentrated  on  the  psychical  side  of  the 
question. 

On  the  one  hand,  originating  with  Braid  and  Liebeault, 
we  have  the  respectable  science  and  the  respectable  prac- 
titioners of  Hypnotism,  Hypnotism,  no  doubt,  implies  a 
particular  physiological  condition.  But  the  older  physical 
explanations  are  already  discarded.  Nobody  now  believes 
that  the  hypnotic  state  is  due  to  prolonged  monotonous 
stimulation  of  certain  sensory  nerves  inducing  inhibition  of  the 
higher  cerebral  centres.  The  three  classic  stages  of  the  Grand 
Hysteria  find  few  supporters  at  the  present  day.  Whatever 
the  physiological  explanation  of  the  phenomena  may  be,  it 


250    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

has  now  come  to  be  recognised  that  the  clue  to  the  process 
must  be  souglit  first  in  the  region  of  psychology.  The 
leading  Continental  school  has,  indeed,  rejected  the  term 
"  Hypnotism  "  altogether,  substituting  for  it  "  Suggestion." 
In  fact,  it  is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  the  phenomena  of 
Hypnotism  are  due  primarily  to  Suggestion.  Now  "Sug- 
gestion is  only  another  name  for  the  power  of  ideas,  so  far 
as  they  prove  efficacious  over  belief  and  conduct."^  When, 
therefore,  we  speak  of  healing  by  Hypnotism  or  Suggestion, 
we  mean,  in  fact,  healing  by  imagination,  or  healing  by 
faith. 

In  the  other  camp  we  have  the  innumerable  sects  of  Mental- 
healers,  Mind-curers,  Christian  Scientists,  or  by  whatever 
other  name  they  may  be  called.  All  these  have  from  the 
first  fastened  their  attention  on  the  internal  or  psychical  side 
of  the  matter.  They  have  all  along  recognised  that  the 
healing  process  was  essentially  an  act  of  the  patient's  will, 
imagination,  or  faith.  Science  and  Superstition  can  now 
almost  shake  hands,  so  narrow  is  the  ditch  that  divides  the 
two  camps. 

The  earliest  Mental -healer  of  this  period  of  whom  we  have 
authentic  record  is  Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby.^  Born  at 
Lebanon,  New  Hampshire,  on  February  i6,  1802,  he  removed 
with  his  parents  as  a  young  child  to  Belfast,  Maine,  where 
the  greater  part  of  his  life  was  spent.  Quimby's  father  was 
a  poor  blacksmith,  and  the  boy  himself  had  but  little  school- 
ing. In  his  youth  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  clockmaker,  and 
proved  himself  a  successful  and  ingenious  craftsman.  He 
appears  to  have  been  a  thoughtful  and  observant  man ; 
an  inventor,  moreover,  and  always  open  to  new  knowledge. 
In  1838  he  was  present  at  a  lecture  on  Mesmerism  by  Charles 
Foyen.     He  was  much  struck  by  what  he  saw  and  heard, 

'  William  James,  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  112. 

'  The  account  of  Quimby's  life  and  doctrine  given  in  the  text  is 
derived  mainly  from  The  Philosophy  of  P.  P.  Quimby,  by  Aniictta 
Gertrude  Dresser  (Mrs.  Julius  Dresser),  1895.  I  have  made  use  also  of 
the  later  material  included  in  the  articles  on  Christian  Science  pub- 
lished in  McLure's  Magazine  in  1907  and  1908,  and  in  Lyman  Powell's 
useful  book,  Christian  Science,  the  Faith  and  its  Founder  (1907). 


THE   RISE   OF   MENTAL-HEALING  251 

made  the  acquaintance  of  the  lecturer,  and  finally  began  to 
experiment  in  the  new  science  on  his  own  account.  He  was 
fortunate  enough  to  find  an  admirable  subject,  one  Lucius 
Burkmar,  a  youth  of  seventeen,  and  soon  threw  up  his  trade 
and  became  a  professional  Mesmerist,  giving  popular  demon- 
strations and  treating  disease  by  clairvoyance. 

After  three  or  four  years,  however,  Quimby  became  con- 
vinced that  his  clairvoyant's  diagnoses  were  due  to  thought- 
reading— that,  in  fact,  he  simply  reproduced  the  opinion 
which  the  patient  or  Quimby  himself  had  formed  of  the 
disease,  and  that  his  prescriptions  could  be  traced  to  the 
same  source.  Carrying  out  this  line  of  thought,  he  convinced 
himself  that  the  efficacy  of  the  treatment  prescribed  by 
Burkmar  was  due  entirely  to  the  expectation  of  the  patient, 
that  any  other  person  or  thing  which  could  inspire  equal 
confidence  in  the  patient  would  be  equally  efficacious — that, 
in  short,  the  patients  cured  themselves.  He  dismissed 
Burkmar,  discontinued  the  practice  of  Mesmerism,  and, 
meditating  upon  his  past  experience,  gradually  evolved  a 
new  theory — that  all  disease  was  a  delusion,  an  error  of  the 
mind.  In  1859  he  removed  to  Portland,  Maine,  where  he 
opened  an  office,  and  was  continually  occupied  until  his 
death,  in  1866,  in  the  treatment  of  disease  by  the  new  method 
which  he  had  elaborated  in  accordance  with  his  theory. 
One  of  his  early  patients,  Mrs.  Julius  Dresser,  who  came  to 
him  as  a  young  girl  after  six  years  of  hopeless  illness,  her 
case  given  up  by  all  the  doctors,  thus  describes  his  procedure : — 

"He  seemed  to  know  that  I  had  come  to  him  feeling  that  he  was  a 
last  resort  and  with  little  faith  in  him  and  his  mode  of  treatment.  But 
instead  of  telling  me  that  I  was  not  sick,  he  sat  beside  me  and 
explained  to  me  all  my  sickness  was,  how  I  got  into  the  condition,  and 
the  way  I  could  have  been  taken  out  of  it  through  the  right  under- 
standing. He  seemed  to  see  through  the  situation  from  the  beginning 
and  explained  the  cause  and  effect  so  clearly  that  I  could  see  a  little  of 
what  he  meant.  ...  He  continued  to  explain  the  case  from  day  to 
day.  ...  I  felt  the  spirit  and  life  that  came  with  his  words,  and  I 
found  myself  gaining  steadily." 

The  local  papers  of  these  years  contain  frequent  references 


252     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

to  Quimby's  theories.^  Thus  the  Bangor  {MaAn€)  Jeffersonian 
writes  in  1857:  "He  says  the  mind  is  what  it  thinks  it  is, 
and  that  if  it  contends  against  the  thought  of  disease  and 
creates  for  itself  an  ideal  form  of  health,  that  form  impresses 
itself  upon  the  animal  spirit  and  through  that  upon  the 
body." 

Again,  in  the  Lebanon  Free  Press  of  December  3,  i860,  we 
read :  "  The  foundation  of  his  theory  is  that  disease  is  not 
self-existent  nor  created  by  God,  but  is  purely  an  invention 
of  man." 

In  the  Portland  Advertiser  of  February  13,  1862,  there  is  a 
letter  from  Quimby  himself.  After  explaining  that  he  is  not 
a  Spiritualist  or  a  Mesmcriser  he  goes  on  :  "  I  deny  disease  as 
a  truth,  but  admit  it  as  a  deception  ,  .  .  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation  until  the  people  believe  in  it."  The 
patient's  trouble,  he  adds,  arises  from  "the  poison  of  the 
doctor's  opinion  in  admitting  a  disease." 

One  of  his  patients,  Miss  E.  G.  Ware,  in  a  letter  published 
in  the  same  paper  of  March  22,  1862,  amplifies  this  creed  : — 

"Instead  of  treating  the  body  as  an  intelligent  organisation  with 
independent  life,  he  [Ouimbv]  finds  the  life  and  intelligence  in  the  man 
who  occupies  it."  Often,  she  adds,  he  tells  the  patient  that  "  he  has  no 
real  disease.  ...  He  refers  (disease)  directly  to  man  himself  under  the 
dominion  of  errors  invented  by  man,  ...  To  cure  disease  ...  is  to 
destroy  the  error  on  which  it  is  based." 

But  in  view  of  later  developments  the  most  valuable,  if  not 
perhaps  the  most  lucid,  of  the  contemporary  expositions  of 
Quimby's  theory  is  to  be  found  in  a  letter  from  another 
grateful  patient,  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Patterson,  afterwards  to  be 
known  throughout  two  hemispheres  as  the  Rev.  Mary  Baker 
G.  Eddy,  the  founder  of  Christian  Science.  The  letter  was 
published  in  the  Portland  (Maine)  Courier  of  November  7, 

'  These  extracts  from  the  provincial  papers  quoted  in  the  text  are 
derived  from  Mrs.  Dresser's  book  already  referred  to.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  emphasise  the  importance  of  this  disinterested  contem- 
porary testimony  in  view  of  the  fierce  controvcri.y  which  has  in  recent 
years  sprung  up  round  Quimby's  name. 


THE   RISE   OF   MENTAL-HEALING  253 

1862.*  Mrs.  Patterson  began  by  explaining  that  Quimby  .A 
healed  neither  by  Spiritualism  nor  by  Animal  Magnetism,  and 
that  the  magnetiser  who  had  previously  treated  her  failed  to 
effect  a  cure  because  "  he  believed  in  disease,  independent  of 
the  mind,  hence  I  could  not  be  wiser  than  my  Master."  She 
then  continues : — 

"  But  now  I  can  see,  dimly  at  first  and  only  as  trees  walking,  the 
great  principle  which  underlies  Dr.  Quimby's  faith  and  works ;  and 
just  in  proportion  to  my  right  perception  of  truth  is  my  recovery. 
This  truth  which  he  opposes  to  the  error  of  giving  intelligence  to 
matter  and  placing  pain  where  it  never  placed  itself,  if  received 
understandingly,  changes  the  currents  of  the  system  to  their  normal 
action,  and  the  mechanism  of  the  body  goes  on  undisturbed.  That 
this  is  a  science  capable  of  demonstration  becomes  clear  to  the  mind 
of  those  patients  who  reason  upon  the  process  of  their  cure.  The 
truth  which  he  establishes  in  the  patient  cures  him  (although  he  may 
be  wholly  unconscious  thereof),  and  the  body,  which  is  full  of  light,  is 
no  longer  in  disease.  At  present  I  am  too  much  in  error  to  elucidate 
the  truth,  and  can  touch  only  the  keynote  for  the  Master  hand  to  wake 
the  harmony." 

The  exposition,  as  said,  is  not  lucid.  The  writer  sets  out, 
as  she  tells  us,  to  "  analyse  "  the  power  by  which  she  has 
been  healed :  she  makes  "  great  argument  about  it  and 
about "  without  ever  getting  to  the  point.  Imperfect  as 
the  testimony  is,  it  is,  however,  sufficient. 

From  all  the  contemporary  testimonies  it  is  clear  that  so 
far  back  as  the  later  fifties,  at  any  rate,  P.  P.  Quimby  taught 
that  disease  was  a  non-entity,  a  delusion,  an  ancient  error  ; 
and  that  he  carried  out  his  teaching  in  practice  by  minister- 
ing, not  to  the  body,  but  to  the  sick  soul. 

Quimby  left  behind  him  no  systematic  account  of  his 
doctrines.  In  any  case  he  had  no  special  power  of  expres- 
sion, and  his  later  years  seem  to  have  been  occupied,  to  the 
extreme  limits  of  his  strength,  in  healing  those  who  came  to 
him  for  help.  But  he  was  in  the  habit  of  dictating  to  one  or 
other  of  his  disciples  who  acted  as  secretary  or  amanuensis, 
whenever  he  could  find  moments  of  leisure.  These  manu- 
scripts, which  fill  several  volumes,  are  still  extant.  From  the 
*  Quoted  in  McLuie's  Magazine  for  February,  1907. 


254    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

fragments  which  have  been  published  by  Mrs.  Dresser  and 
others  it  is  clear  that  his  philosophical  ideas  had  never  been 
worked  out  in  a  coherent  system.  The  keynote  of  his 
thought,  however,  is  a  vivid  realisation  of  the  difference 
between  what  older  philosophies  have  called  Soul  and  Body, 
the  Spiritual  and  the  Natural  Man.  But  Quimby  conceived 
this  opposition  from  a  new  point  of  view,  and  employed 
a  novel  terminology  for  the  purpose  of  describing  it.  "  Is  a 
man  spirit  or  matter  ?  "  he  asks,  and  replies  "  Neither  ;  he  is 
Life."  Though  not  an  adherent  of  orthodox  Christianity, 
he  believed  in  Christ,  and  frequently  describes  his  doctrine 
as  the  Science  of  Christ :  he  occasionally  calls  it  "  Christian 
Science."  More  generally,  however,  he  refers  to  it  as  the 
"Science  of  Health"  or  the  "  Science  of  Health  and  Happi- 
ness." But  both  "  Christ "  and  "  Science "  are  used  in  a 
special  sense.  Thus  he  writes  that  Christ  "  separated  Him- 
self as  Jesus  the  Man  of  opinion  from  Christ  the  scientific 
Man."  Again,  after  explaining  that  the  "senses  are  life — the 
senses  are  all  that  there  is  of  a  man,"  he  proceeds:  "Are 
the  senses  mind?  I  answer  No.  Mind  and  Senses  are  as 
distinct  as  light  and  darkness,  and  the  same  distinction  holds 
good  in  wisdom  and  knowledge,  Jesus  and  Christ.  Christ, 
Wisdom,  and  Senses  are  synonyms.  So  likewise  are  Jesus, 
Knowledge,  and  Mind."  Or  again,  "Mind  is  Matter— all 
knowledge  that  is  of  man  is  based  on  opinion.  This  I  call 
the  world   of  Matter." 

Quimby's  vocabulary,  it  will  be  seen,  is  somewhat  con- 
fusing. The  usage  of  centuries  has  accustomed  us  to 
conceive  of  "mind"  and  "matter"  as  complementary  terms, 
as  an  alternative  method  of  expressing  the  opposition  be- 
tween soul  and  body.  But  Quimby  tells  us  that  mind  is 
matter.  The  statement,  however,  represents  something  more 
than  the  confusion  of  terminology  natural  in  a  self-educated 
man.  In  classing  disease,  mind,  opinion,  knowledge,  Jesus, 
amongst  the  things  that  do  not  count,  Quimby  is  really 
endeavouring  to  draw  a  new  line  between  the  things  which 
are  and  the  things  which  only  seem  to  be.  It  is  a  line 
which  everybody  at  some  time  of  his  life  tries  to  draw  in 


THE   RISE   OF   MENTAL-HEALING  255 

some  fashion  or  another.  We  must  recognise  here  an  heroic 
attempt  to  start  from  a  new  point,  to  draw  the  hne  higher 
up,  to  leave  on  the  other  side  a  good  deal  which  most  people 
have  been  content  to  include  amongst  the  things  that  are. 
We  are  not  here  concerned  with  the  success  of  the  attempt. 
It  is  enough  to  bear  in  mind,  in  considering  the  development 
of  later  derivative  philosophies,  that  Quimby  is  the  first  of 
whom  it  is  recorded  that  he  made  such  an  attempt. 

Quimby  is  one  of  those  men,  like  Socrates  or  St.  Simon, 
who  live  not  in  their  books  but  in  the  lives  of  their  disciples. 
He  wrote  his  message  not  on  the  printed  page,  but  on  the 
minds  and  characters  of  living  men  and  women.  One  of  his 
earliest  pupils  was  the  Rev.  W.  F.  Evans,  originally  a 
Methodist  minister,  who  for  some  years  before  as  a  patient 
he  visited  Quimby,  in  about  1863,  had  been  studying  the 
works  of  Swedenborg.  Evans  quickly  assimilated  Quimby 's 
theories,  and  between  1869  and  1886  published  a  number 
of  books  on  Mental-healing.  It  is  not  necessary  to  con- 
sider his  teaching  in  detail.  His  terminology  and  doctrine 
are  strongly  tinged  with  Swedenborgianism  and  differ  con- 
siderably from  Quimby's.  He  can  hardly,  in  fact,  be  said 
to  be  in  the  strict  sense  a  disciple,  though  he  acknowledges 
his  personal  debt  to  the  Maine  healer.  But  he  drew  the 
line  in  a  different  place.  He  does  not  identify  mind  with 
matter.  The  following  extract  from  his  earliest  book  will, 
however,  make  it  clear  that  in  his  view  of  the  nature  of 
disease  he  differs  little  from  his  teacher.  To  cure  disease, 
he  says, 

"  all  that  is  necessary  is  the  power  intuitively  to  detect  the  morbid  state 
of  the  mind  underlying  the  disease,  and  how  to  convert  the  patient  to  a 
more  healthful  inner  life.  All  disease  is,  in  its  cause,  an  insanity  .  .  . 
its  secret  spring  is  some  abnormaUty  or  unsoundness  of  the  mind."  ' 

Dr.  Evans  in  his  later  life  established  a  Mind-Cure  Sana- 
torium in  Salisbury,  Mass.  He  appears  to  have  had  a  con- 
siderable  following   in    his    lifetime,   and  his   influence   still 

•  The  Mental  Science  Cure,  p.  80  (Glasgow,  1870).  The  fust  American 
edition  was  published  in  1869. 


256     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

persists  among  the  adherents  of  the  "  New  Thought " 
Movement.^ 

Both  Juh'us  Dresser  and  his  wife  were  patients  of  Quimby 
in  about  iS6o,  and  their  son,  Horatio  W.  Dresser,  is  one  of 
the  ablest  exponents  of  the  unsectarian  side  of  the  Mind 
Cure  or  New  Thought  Movement  at  the  present  time  ; 
another  pupil  of  Dr.  Quimby's,  as  said,  is  the  founder  and 
sole  exponent  of  the  philosophy  of  Christian  Science. 

Quimby  is,  then,  in  a  sense,  the  founder  of  the  whole 
modern  movement  of  Mental-healing  which  in  America  has 
attained  to  such  enormous  proportions.  But  the  Maine 
healer  represents  only  one  of  the  channels  which  connect 
the  present  with  the  past.  The  tide  has  been  fed  from  many 
other  sources.  The  Mind-curers,  as  already  said,  are  the  direct 
descendants  of  the  Mesmerists,  and  in  their  speculative  views 
we  get  .in  touch  through  the  Animal  Magnetists  with  the 
older  mystics.  Hindu  philosophy  has  helped  to  swell  the 
stream,  and,  as  William  James  has  pointed  out,  Berkeley  and 
Emerson  have  contributed.  The  characteristic  note  of  the 
movement  is  its  deliberate  optimism — an  optimism  of  which 
we  find  other  expressions  in  the  gospel  of  Modern  Spiritu- 
alism, in  the  writings  of  Walt  Whitman,  and  generally  in 
the  popular  interpretation  of  the  scientific  doctrine  of  Evolu- 
tion— that  all  things  work  together  for  good.  In  the  hack- 
neyed phrase,  the  New  Thought  is  a  genuine  offspring  of 
the  Zeitgeist. 

To  attempt  an  adequate  description  of  the  numerous  phases 
of  the  movement  would  be  tedious  and  unprofitable.  It  will 
suffice  if  we  examine  it  as  presented  in  the  pages  of  H.  W. 
Dresser,  who  is  admittedly  one  of  its  ablest  exponents,  does 
not  himself  practise  as  a  healer,  and  is  therefore  not  liable 
to  be  biassed  by  commercial  considerations  in  emphasising 
particular  aspects  of  the  doctrine,  and,  above  all,  is  sufficiently 
broad-minded  to  quote  with  appreciation  from  the  writings 
of  others,  such  as  Trine,  Henry  Wood,  and  Leander  Whipple, 
who  represent  other  phases  of  the  movement. 

Dresser,  then,  represents  the  New  Thought  in  its  sanest  and 
'  See  McLure's  Magazine  for  February,  1908,  p.  390. 


THE    RISE   OF   MENTAL-HEALING  257 

most  critical  form.  He  has  departed  from  the  primitive 
simplicity  of  Quimby's  theory.  He  believes  in  the  reality  of 
matter—that  food  can  nourish,  alcohol  intoxicate,  and  drugs 
poison  or  heal  the  body.  Naturally,  therefore,  he  is  sceptical 
of  the  omnipotence  of  the  Mind-cure.  "  Some  diseases,  like 
typhoid,"  he  writes,  "  apparently  have  to  run  their  course, 
even  under  Mental  treatment "  ;  and  he  is  doubtful  as  to  the 
power  of  the  treatment  to  set  broken  bones. ^  In  short,  he 
recommends  that,  for  the  present  at  any  rate,  the  Mental- 
healer  should  seek  to  co-operate  with  the  regular  physician 
rather  than  to  replace  him. 

In  another  important  point  the  modern  Mind-healers  tend 
to  revert  to  the  older  Animal  Magnetists.  Quimby,  as  has 
been  seen,  appealed  exclusively  to  the  understanding  of  his 
patients.  The  modern  hypnotist,  according  to  the  pre- 
dominant scientific  school," acts  on  the  patient's  imagination. 
A  scarecrow  to  the  eye  of  faith  is  as  awe-inspiring  as  a  ghost ; 
and  a  cunningly  constructed  automaton,  which  should  flash 
an  eye  no  less  imperious  and  speak  in  accents  as  persuasive, 
ought  to  prove  therapeutically  as  effective  as  a  Nancy  pro- 
fessor. But  the  Mind-curers  generally  believe  in  the  specific 
action  of  the  operator  on  the  subject.  A  patient  may  be 
treated  and  healed  without  his  consent  and  even  without  his 
knowledge.  Dresser  himself  knows  of  persons  who  have 
under  such  conditions  been  cured  of  drunkenness.^  "Absent " 
treatment  is  thus  as  efficacious  as  treatment  when  healer  and 
patient  sit  and  converse  in  the  same  room.  In  the  tariff  of  a 
leading  New  York  "  Metaphysician  "  which  lies  before  me 
"  Present"  and  "  Absent  "  attention  are  charged  at  the  same 
rate — ten  dollars  an  hour.  Now,  in  a  philosophy  which  allows 
a  professional  curer  of  diseases  to  call  himself  a  Meta- 
physician, which  opposes  "mind  and  body"  to  "soul,"  which 
regards  mind  as  only  a  finer  form  of  matter,  and  speaks  of  it 
as  "shading  off  gradually  into  brain  and  nerves  "3 — in  such 
a  philosophical  scheme  it  is  inevitable  that  the  action  between 

•  Methods  and  Problems  of  Spiritual  Healing  (1904),  pp.  9,  35,  &c. 
'  Dresser,  op.  cit.,  p.  10. 
3  Op.  cit.,  p.  48. 
s 


258     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

healer  and  patient  should  be  described  in  material  terms  and 
should,  whether  admittedly  or  not,  be  conceived  of  as  itself  of 
a  material  nature.  Thus  Dresser  tells  us  that  "  the  thought 
of  the  healer  directs  and  focusses  the  [healing]  power  where 
it  is  most  needed,"  and  further  explains  that  "  in  the  healing 
process  the  communication  ...  is  of  a  vibratory  character," 
analogous  to  the  aerial  waves  by  which  sound  is  conveyed. 
The  conception  of  an  influence  conve}'ed  by  undulations  or 
vibrations  is  the  last  and  most  attenuated  form  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Sympathetic  system.  And  just  as  the  Sympathetic 
system  found  its  complement  in  the  popular  belief  in  witch- 
craft, so  the  modern  Mind-curers  have  given  life  to  a  Franken- 
stein monster — the  belief  in  injurious  mental  action  at  a 
distance.  We  find  little  trace  of  such  a  belief  amongst  the 
Animal  Magnetists,  no  doubt  because  the  fluid  was  generally 
supposed  to  be  physical  both  in  its  origin  and  in  its  effects. 
But,  so  soon  as  the  influence  at  a  distance  became  conceived 
of  as  a  process  primarily  affecting  the  mind  of  the  patient, 
the  fear  of  its  abuse  became  inevitable.  Of  course,  a  power 
which  could  cure  could  also  kill.  But  the  ordinary  citizen 
does  not  expect  to  come  across  a  Catharine  de  Medicis  or  a 
Marquise  de  Brinvilliers.  It  is  quite  another  thing  to  possess 
or  to  dread  the  possession  by  your  neighbour  of  a  power  not 
merely  to  inflict  discomfort  and  disease,  but  to  influence  will 
and  affection  for  private  ends.  How  powerfully  the  popular 
imagination  has  been  impressed  by  this  conception  all 
alienists  know.  The  conviction  of  persecution  by  distant 
enemies,  operating  by  mesmerism  or  telepathy,  is  one  of  the 
commonest  delusions  of  incipient  insanity.  But  sane  persons 
have  not  escaped  the  contagion  of  this  panic  fear.  When 
Thomas  Lake  Harris  fell  out  with  Andrew  Jackson  Davis 
the  poet  commiserated  the  prophet  as  "the  victim  of  a  strange 
magnetism "  ;  Mrs.  Eddy  is  obsessed  by  the  spectre  of 
Malicious  Mesmerism;  and  the  Mental-healers  are  continually 
concerned  about  the  danger  of  invasion  or  contamination  by 
alien  mental  atmospheres.  The  contagion,  Dresser  explains, 
may  be  unconscious  on  each  side,  as  when  young  people 
think   themselves   in    love ;   or   there   may  be  a   deliberate 


THE   RISE   OF   MENTAL-HEALING         259 

intention  on  the  part  of  the  invading  or  obsessing  mind  to 
secure  domination  over  another  personality,  "  Before  one 
knows  that  there  is  a  deep-laid  scheme  behind,"  the  mischief 
is  done,  "  and  the  mind  is  brought  into  subjection  to  the 
suggestion  of  another,"  "  Vampires,"  he  warns  us,  "  are 
numerous,  and  one  must  take  care  of  oneself,"  ^ 

But  bodily  healing,  though  an  essential  part  of  the  New 
Thought,  is  only  one  aspect  of  the  gospel.  Its  message  is 
one  of  good  cheer  for  body  and  soul  as  well.  Cast  away  all 
fear,  direct  your  thoughts  continually  towards  the  good,  strive 
continually  to  realise  your  identity  with  the  Divine. 

"The  desideratum,"  says  Dresser,  "is  to  lift  the  entire  process  (of 
healing)  to  the  spiritual  plane,  to  live  in  thought  with  the  ideal,  to 
regard  mind  and  body  rather  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  soul,  than 
10  look  upon  the  soul  from  the  standpoint  of  the  body.  To  live  more 
with  God,  this  it  is  spiritually  to  heal  and  to  be  healed.  To  aspire,  to 
hope,  to  love,  to  co-operate  with  God.  For  healing  is  loving  and 
renewing  ;  it  is  a  part  of  the  great  creative  work  of  the  Universe."  * 

Says  another  exponent  of  the  New  Thought : — 

"  The  great  central  fact  in  human  life  is  the  coming  into  a  conscious 
vital  realisation  of  our  oneness  with  the  Infinite  Life,  and  the  opening 
of  ourselves  fully  to  the  Divine  inflow.  In  just  the  degree  that  we  come 
into  a  conscious  realisation  of  our  oneness  with  the  Infinite  Life,  and 
open  ourselves  to  the  Divine  Inflow,  do  we  actualise  in  ourselves  the 
qualities  and  powers  of  the  Infinite  Life,  do  we  make  ourselves  channels 
through  which  the  Infinite  Intelligence  and  Power  can  work.  In  just 
the  degree  in  which  you  realise  your  oneness  with  the  Infinite  Spirit, 
you  will  exchange  dis-ease  for  ease,  inharmony  for  harmony,  suffering 
and  pain  for  abounding  health  and  strength.  To  recognise  our  own 
divinity  and  our  intimate  relation  to  the  Universal,  is  to  attach  the  belt 
of  our  machinery  to  the  power-house  of  the  Universe.  One  need 
remain  in  hell  no  longer  than  one  chooses  to  ;  we  can  rise  to  any 
heaven  we  ourselves  choose  ;  and  when  we  choose  so  to  rise  all  the 
higher  powers  in  the  Universe  combine  to  help  us  heavenwards."  ^ 


'  Op.  cit.,  pp.  45,  51,  &c. 
'  Dresser,  op.  cit.,  p.  33. 

^  Ralph  Waldo  Trine,  In  Tune  with  the  Infinite,  quoted  by  W.  James, 
Varieties  of  Religious    Experience,    p.    loi.     James's    account    of    the 


26o    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  New  Thought,  it  will  be  seen,  is  something  much 
more  than  a  new  hygiene.  It  is  a  rule  for  the  guidance 
of  life.  It  is,  in  short,  a  new  religion.  But  it  makes  no  claim 
to  exclusive  revelation.  The  divine  illumination,  the  strength, 
and  the  healing  are  within  the  reach  of  all.  But  they  are  the 
reward  of  deliberate  and  constantly  renewed  effort.  The 
whole  energies  of  the  mind  must  be  concentrated  on  higher 
things  ;  the  outer  world  must  be  shut  out ;  the  seeker  must 
enter  into  the  silence,  and  keep  his  whole  being  open  to  the 
divine  influx. 

Probably  the  state  thus  indicated  does  not  differ  essentially 
from  the  "  superior  condition  "  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  or 
the  state  of  inspiration  claimed  by  Harris  and  other  prophets 
of  the  period. 

But  the  question  which  will  most  interest  the  practical  man 
is  "  Do  the  Mental-healers  heal  ?  "  Unquestionably  they  do. 
There  are,  indeed,  few  statistics  available.  But  the  question 
has  been  carefully  investigated  by  Dr.  H.  Goddard,  of  Clarke 
University,^  who  finds  abundant  evidence  of  cures,  both  by 
I-'aith-healers,  commonly  so  called,  such  as  Dowie  and 
Schlatter,  and  by  followers  of  the  New  Thought  He  has 
satisfied  himself  that  there  are  many  cases  where  the  cure  is 
real.  He  quotes  some  statistics  of  a  Mental  Science  Home, 
the  records  of  which  have  been  fairly  and  intelligently  kept. 
Out  of  71  cases,  of  which  particulars  are  given,  24  were 
claimed  as  cured,  34  more  or  less  improved,  13  not  helped. 
Amongst  the  failures  are  cases  of  cancer,  locomotor  ataxy, 
Bright's  disease,  insanity,  and  melancholia. 

Of  course,  such  figures  are  of  no  value  in  indicating  the 
proportion  of  cures,  since  several  different  processes  of  selec- 
tion had,  no  doubt,  been  in  operation  before  the  patients  were 
admitted  to  the  Home.  But  they  do  prove  that  a  favourable 
effect  is  produced  in  many  cases.  Dr.  Goddard's  general 
conclusion  is  that  Faith-healing  and  Mental  Science  are 
effective  in  cases  where  Hypnotism  would  be  effective,  and 

"Religion   of    Healthy  Mindedness "  should   be   studied    by  all    who 
are  interested  in  the  New  Thought  Movement. 

'  American  Journal  of  Psycholcgy,  vol.  x.  (1889),  p.  431. 


THE   RISE   OF  MENTAL-HEALING         261 

fail  where  Hypnotism  also  fails.  In  other  words,  in  all  alike 
the  effect  produced  would  appear  to  be  due  to  Suggestion  ; 
and  it  has  not  yet  been  proved  that  any  one  of  the  recognised 
modes  of  imparting  the  suggestion  is  conspicuously  more 
effective  than  another. 


CHAPTER   XV 

MARY   BAKER   EDDY 

Birth  and  early  years  :  marries  (1843)  G.  W.  Glover  :  marries  (1853) 
Dr.  Patterson — Visits  Quimby  and  is  cured  :  the  fall  on  the  ice — 
Hc^ins  to  teach  and  practise  healing — Richard  Kennedy — Birtii  of 
Christian  Science — Marries  (1877)  A.  G.  Eddy — In  the  law-courts  :  the 
new  Witchcraft — The  New  Church  :  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College — Science  and  Health — The  organisation  of  the  Church,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy's  part  in  it. 

WE  have  now  to  trace  the  history  of  Quimby's  most 
famous  disciple,  and  of  the  school  of  Mental- 
healing  which  she  has  founded.'  Mary  A. 
Morse  Baker,  afterwards  known  successively  as  Mrs.  Glover, 
Mrs.  Patterson,  and  now  as  Mrs.  Eddy,  was  born  at  Bow, 
New  Hampshire,  on  July  16,  1821,  her  father  being  a  farmer 

•  This  account  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life  and  the  history  of  Christian  Science 
is  based  partly  on  her  own  Autobiography,  but  mainly  on  the  articles  by 
Miss  Georgine  Milmine  in  McLure's  Magazine  for  1907  and  1908,  already 
referred  to.  I  do  not  propose,  however,  to  follow  the  author  of  these 
extremely  able  articles  in  her  account  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  early  years.  This 
part  of  her  story  is  necessarily  based  either  on  tradition,  or  at  best  on 
the  memories  of  the  oldest  inhabitants.  An  octogenarian's  recollections 
of  his  own  childhood  and  youth  have  an  undoubted  value,  and  may 
present  us  with  an  appro.ximate  picture  of  the  reality.  But  the  recol- 
lections of  an  octogenarian — perhaps  even  a  nonagenarian — about  some 
other  person's  childhood  and  youth  !  That  is  quite  another  matter. 
Any  reader  who  desires  it  may  study  the  rather  unpleasing  picture  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  youth  and  early  womanhood,  as  presented  in  the  articles 
in  question,  and  form  his  own  conclusions. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  these  remarks  do  not  apply  to  Miss 
Milmine's  account  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  later  career — an  account  which  is 
262 


MARY  BAKER   EDDY  263 

of  the  familiar  New  England  type ;  a  man  of  strong,  if 
narrow,  personality,  much  respected  in  the  district.  In  her 
Autobiography  ^  Mrs.  Eddy  tells  us  that  her  ancestors  were 
connected  with  some  distinguished  Scotch  families.  But  in 
one  instance  at  least  the  claim  has  been  denied  by  the  British 
representative  of  the  family  in  question.^ 

Mary  Baker  was  the  youngest  of  six  ;  as  a  child  she  was 
gifted  with  great  personal  beauty,  and  appears  to  have  been 
the  pet  of  the  family.  Like  the  youthful  Andrew  Jackson 
Davis,3  she  tells  us  that  at  the  age  of  eight  she  heard  a  voice 
repeatedly  calling  her  name.  She  thought  it  was  her 
mother's  voice,  but  found  that  her  mother  had  not  called  her. 
Again,  Mrs.  Eddy  tells  us  that  when,  about  the  age  of  twelve, 
she  was  examined  on  the  occasion  of  her  formal  reception 
into  the  Church,  she  refused  to  accept  the  doctrines  of  pre- 
destination and  eternal  damnation  :  "Even  the  oldest 
Church  members  wept  at  her  eloquence  .  .  .  the  good 
clergyman's  heart  also  melted,  and  he  received  her  into  their 
communion."  But  Mary  A.  M.  Baker,  as  appears  from  the 
official  records  of  the  Tilton  Congregational  Church,  was 
received  into  the  Church  in  1838,  when  she  was  seventeen 
years  old.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Andrew  Jackson 
Davis  relates  a  similar  legend  of  himself  at  the  same  signifi- 
cant age  of  twelve.  The  prophetic  imagination  tends  to 
conform  to  tradition. 

not  only  judicial  in  tone,  but  supported  at  every  step  by  contemporary 
letters,  affidavits,  official  records,  and  other  documentary  evidence.  A 
few  further  details  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  career  will  be  found  in  a  little  book 
— Chrisiian  Science  :  The  Fatth  and  its  Founder — published  in  1907  by 
the  Kev.  Lyman  P.  Powell.  Mr.  Powell  has  made  an  independent 
study  of  the  Quimby  MSS.  and  other  important  documents  in  the  case, 
and  has  personally  interviewed  many  of  the  leading  witnesses.  There 
can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  of  the  substantial  accuracy  of  the  account 
given  by  these  two  independent  authorities  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  hfe-history. 

'  Retrospeciion  and  Introspection  (thirtieth  thousand,  1906). 

*  See  McLure's  Magazine,  January,  1907,  p.  237,  footnote.  Compare 
the  claim  of  the  celebrated  Spirit  Medium,  D.  D.  Home,  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  Earls  of  Home — again  a  Scotch  family. 

3  This,  it  need  scarcely  be  said,  is  not  the  parallel  that  loyal  Christian 
Scientists  have  drawn. 


t     ur»i|VP»«!TY    » 


264    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

One  of  the  Baker  brothers,  Albert,  was  a  man  of  consider- 
able ability,  who  died  at  the  age  of  thirty,  at  the  openin^j  of 
what  promised  to  be  a  career  of  distinction.  This  brother, 
Mrs.  Eddy  tells  us,  taught  her  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew. 
The  favourite  studies  of  her  childhood,  she  adds,  were 
Natural  Thilosoph}',  Logic,  and  Moral  Science.  But  all  this 
worldly  knowledge  vanished  like  a  dream  when  the  revela- 
tion came.  "  Learning  was  so  illumined  that  Grammar  was 
eclipsed."     So  it  was  ! 

In  December,  1843,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  Mary  Baker 
married  for  the  first  time.  Her  husband,  George  Washing- 
ton Glover,  a  bricklayer  by  trade,  had  left  New  England  to 
settle  in  South  Carolina,  where  wages  were  higher.'  Six 
months  after  the  marriage  he  died  of  yellow  fever.  A  few 
months  later  a  posthumous  child  was  born.  The  boy  was 
adopted  by  some  neighbours,  who  in  1857  moved  to 
Minnesota.  Mrs.  Glover,  as  we  must  now  call  her,  did  not 
see  her  son  again  until  1S7S,  when  he  was  thirty-four  years 
old,  and  himself  married,  with  two  children. 

From  1844  to  1853  Mrs.  Glover  lived  either  with  her  father 
or  a  married  sister,  Mrs.  Tilton.  In  the  latter  year  she 
married  for  the  second  time,  her  husband  being  Daniel 
Patterson,  a  travelling  dentist.  They  lived  together  for  some 
years  in  struggles  and  poverty,  constantly  moving  from 
place  to  place.  In  1862  Patterson,  who  had  visited  the 
battlefield  merely  as  a  spectator,  was  captured  by  the  Con- 
federate forces,  and  spent  a  year  or  two  in  a  Southern 
prison.  On  his  release  he  and  his  wife  lived  together 
again  for  a  time,  but  finally  separated  in  1866.  In  1873 
Mrs.  Glover-Patterson  obtained  a  divorce  on  the  ground  of 
desertion.2 

'  McLures  Magazine,  January,  1907,  p.  239.  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  the 
Preface  to  her  Miscellaneous  Wriiings,  p.  viii,  calls  him  "Colonel 
Glover,  of  Charleston,  Soutli  CaroHna." 

'  It  should  be  stated  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  account  of  her  separation 
from  Patterson,  and  of  the  subsequent  divorce,  differs  from  that  given 
in  the  text.  The  same  remark  applies  to  other  episodes  related  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Retrospection  and  Introspection  and  her  other  autobiographical 
writings.     As  the  history  of  Mrs.  Eddy  given  in  McLures  Magazine  is 


MARY  BAKER  EDDY  265 

But  long  before  the  separation  the  turning-point  in  Mrs. 
Patterson's  life  had  come.  For  the  greater  part  of  her  youth 
and  womanhood  she  had  been  in  deh'cate  health,  and  during 
the  later  years  was  apparently  a  confirmed  invalid.  She  left 
her  sick-bed  to  marry  Patterson,  and  for  some  years  of  her 
married  life  was  practicall}'  bedridden.  In  October,  1861, 
Patterson  wrote  to  Quimby,  asking  his  help  on  behalf  of  his 
wife,  whom  he  described  as  suffering  for  many  years  from  a 
spinal  disease.  Mrs.  Patterson  could  not  at  that  time  afford 
the  expense  of  going  to  Portland,  but  in  the  following  year, 
after  Patterson's  capture  by  the  Southerners,  she  managed  to 
journey  thither  by  herself  She  arrived  in  October,  1862. 
Mrs.  Julius  Dresser  has  left  a  record  of  her  first  appearance.^ 
The  invalid  was  so  feeble  that  she  had  to  be  helped  up  the 
steps  to  Quimby's  consulting-room.  She  was  worn  and 
emaciated,  shabbily  dressed  and  extremely  poor.  All  her 
adult  life,  indeed,  since  her  first  few  months  of  marriage  in 
1843,  had  been  spent  in  poverty.  She  had  for  nearly  twenty 
years  been  an  invalid  dependent  on  others.  For  forty  years 
her  life  had  been  of  the  narrowest  and  barest  kind  ;  there  had 
been  no  interests  of  wider  scope  than  those  of  the  home,  and 
in  these  she  seems  to  have  found  no  outlet  worthy  of  her 
restless  energies.  Of  the  nature  of  these  energies  no  member 
of  her  circle,  not  even  herself,  could  have  been  aware.  From 
this  date  onwards  all  was  changed.  That  Quimby  restored 
her  bodily  health  is  much.  But  he  did  more.  He  gave  her 
a  purpose  in  life.  He  laid  the  world  open  to  her.  For  some 
years  Mrs.  Patterson  seems  to  have  lost  sight  of  her  own 
personality  in  her  enthusiasm  for  Quimby  and  his  teaching. 
One  of  her  early  letters  has  been  quoted  in  the  previous 
chapter,  in  another  letter,  dated  April,  1864,  she  tells 
Quimby  that  she  is  about  to  lecture  in  the  Town  Hall  at 
Warren,  on  "  P.  P.  Quimby's  Spiritual  Science  Healing 
Disease,    as    opposed     to     Deism     or    Rochester    Rapping 

attested  at  nearly  every  point  by  sworn  testimonies  and  citations  ol 
court  records,  &c.,  there  is,  of  course,  little  ambiguity  as  to  the  real 
facts  of  the  case. 

«  The  Philosophy  of  P.  P.  Quiwby,  p.  50. 


266    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Spiritualism."  On  Quimby's  death,  in  January,  1866,  Mrs 
Patterson  published  some  memorial  lines  in  a  Lynn  news- 
paper, which  are  remarkable  for  the  extravagance  of  the 
personal  devotion  displayed.  The  first  and  last  stanzas  run 
as  follows : — 


Did  sackcloth  clothe  the  sun  and  day  grow  night, 
All  Matter  mourn  the  hour  with  dewy  eyes, 

When  Truth,  receding  from  our  mortal  sight, 
Had  paid  to  error  her  last  sacrifice  ? 


Heaven  but  the  happiness  of  that  calm  soul. 
Growing  in  stature  to  the  throne  of  God  ; 

Rest  sliould  reward  him  who  hatii  made  us  whole, 

Seeking,  though  trembk-rs,  wlicre  his  footsteps  trod." 

A  few  days  before  these  lines  were  written  Mrs.  Patterson, 
who  was  then  residing  with  her  husband  in  Lynn,  Mass., 
slipped  on  the  frosty  pavement,  and  in  her  fall  struck  her 
back  on  the  ice.  She  was  taken  up  unconscious.  Writing 
on  February  i,  1866,  two  weeks  after  the  accident,  to  her 
fellow-disciple,  Julius  Dresser,  she  says  : — 

"  The  physician  attending  said  I  had  taken  the  last  step  I  ever 
should,  but  in  two  days  I  got  out  of  my  bed  alone  and  will  walk,  but 
yet  I  confess  I  was  frightened,  and  out  of  that  nervous  heat  my 
friends  are  forming,  ^pile  of  me,  the  terrible  spinal  affection  from 
which  I  have  suffered  so  long  and  hopelessly  .  .  .  Now  can't  you  help 
me  ?  I  believe  you  can.  I  write  this  with  this  feeling.  I  believe  that 
I  could  help  another  in  my  condition  if  they  had  not  placed  their 
intelligence  in  matter.  This  I  have  not  done,  and  yet  I  am  slowly 
failing.  Won't  you  write  me  if  you  will  undertake  for  me  if  I  can  get 
to  you  ? 

"  Respectfully, 

"Mary  M.  Patterson.'" 

It  is  from  this  illness  that  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  followers 
date  the  discovery  of  Christian  Science.  And,  in  fact,  what- 
ever share  in  the  credit  of  the  discovery  we  may  assign  to 

'  The  text  of  this  important  letter  is  given  in  McLure's  Magazine  for 
February,  1907. 


MARY   BAKER   EDDY  267 

Mrs.  Eddy,  it  seems  probable  that  her  mental  independence 
originated  in  this  incident.  It  is  curious  to  reflect  that  if 
Quimby  himself  had  lived  a  few  months  longer  there  might 
have  been  no  Mother  Church  and  no  final  revelation  in  440 
editions,  Asa  G.  Eddy  might  have  died  a  bachelor,  and  the 
Red  Dragon  ^  might  still  be  sleeping  in  his  cave.  But  when 
Mrs.  Patterson  fell  upon  the  ice  Quimby  was  dead  or  dying. 
And  since  Julius  Dresser  apparently  could  not  come  to  Lynn 
there  was  none  to  help.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  forced  to  fight  the 
illness  and  depression  resulting  from  the  accident  with  her 
own  right  hand,  even  if  the  weapon  which  brought  victory 
had  been  forged  by  another.  She  speedily  recovered  hei 
health ;  but  in  fact,  as  we  learn  from  the  affidavit  of  the 
doctor  who  attended  her,  the  injury  was  not  of  a  serious 
character. 

Probably,  as  said,  the  beginnings  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  mental 
independence  may  be  traced  to  this  episode.  It  appears, 
nevertheless,  from  the  testimony  of  many  persons  still  living, 
that  for  the  next  four  or  five  years  she  continued  to  regard 
herself  as  the  pupil  and  disciple  of  Quimby.  and  to  give  him 
the  credit  of  the  new  philosophy  which  she  made  it  her 
business  to  preach  to  all  who  could  be  persuaded  to  listen. 
After  her  separation  from  Patterson  she  wandered  about  for 
four  years  living  with  different  families,  in  Lynn,  Amesbury, 
or  some  of  the  neighbouring  towns.  But  she  was  never  able 
to  stay  long  in  one  family.  She  quarrelled  successively  with 
all  her  hostesses,  and  her  departure  from  the  house  was 
heralded  on  two  or  three  occasions  by  a  violent  scene.  Her 
friends  during  these  years  were  generally  Spiritualists ;  she 
seems  to  have  professes  hersf'T  a  Spiritualist,  and  to  have 
taken  part  in  seances.  She  was  occasionally  entranced,  and 
had  received  "  spirit  communications "  from  her  deceased 
brother  Albert.  Her  first  advertisement  as  a  healer  appeared 
in  1868,  in  the  Spiritualist  paper,  The  Banner  of  Light. 
During  these  years  she  carried  about  with  her  a  copy  of  one 
of  Quimby's    manuscripts  giving  an  •  abstract  of  his   philo- 

'  One  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  names  for  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism.    See 
Revelation  xii.  3. 


268     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

sophy.  This  manuscript  she  permitted  some  of  her  pupils 
to  copy. 

In  1870  Mrs.  Patterson  returned  to  Lynn,  bringing  with 
her  the  most  promising  of  her  pupils,  one  Richard  Kennedy, 
a  boy  of  twenty,  whose  acquaintance  she  had  made  two  years 
previously.  Kennedy  and  Mrs.  Patterson  took  rooms 
together  ;  Kennedy  practising  with  much  success  as  a  healer, 
and  Mrs.  Patterson  studying  and  conducting  classes  in  the 
Science  which  she  was  now  beginning  to  look  upon  as  her 
own.  The  fee  for  the  course  of  twelve  lectures  was  originally 
fixed  at  one  hundred  dollars.  Within  a  few  weeks  Mrs. 
Patterson  was  led,  as  she  tells  us  under  divine  inspiration,  to 
raise  it  to  three  hundred  dollars,  at  which  figure  it  seems  to 
have  remained.!  Mrs.  Patterson  kept  for  herself  the  entire 
fees  paid  for  her  lectures.  Of  the  fees  paid  to  Richard 
Kennedy  she  took  half  of  what  remained  after  the  expenses 
of  the  joint  establishment  had  been  paid.  When  the  inevit- 
able rupture  came,  early  in  1872,  Mrs.  Patterson  found  herself 
for  the  first  lime  in  her  life  a  comparatively  rich  woman,  with 
about  six  thousand  dollars  in  hand. 

From  1870  until  1881  she  remained  in  Lynn,  preparing 
her  book.  Science  and  Health,  the  first  edition  of  which 
appeared  in  1875,  teaching  her  pupils,  and  gradually  collect- 
ing round  her  a  small  band  of  devoted  followers.  On  January 
I,  1877,  she  was  married  for  the  third  time,  to  Asa  Gilbert 
Eddy.  Of  the  bridegroom  it  is  enough  to  say  that  he  did 
as  he  was  told.  Mrs.  Eddy  told  him,  the  night  before  the 
marriage,  that  she  intended  to  marry  him  the  next  day  and 
he  obeyed.     He  died  five  years  later. 

But  if  the  annals  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  third  marriage  are  vacant, 
the  same  cannot  be  said  of  her  dealings  with  her  disciples 
and  her  general  activities  during  the  decade  1870-18S0. 
Favourite  after  favourite  was  installed  in  the  plac3  of  honour, 
only  to  be  cast  out  with  contumely  a  year  or  two  later.  Law- 
suit after  lawsuit  came  into  court,  Mrs.  Eddy  figuring  sometimes 
as  plaintiff,  sometimes  as  defendant — but  always  defeated. 

'  The  number  of  lectures  given  in  return  for  this  fee  was,  however, 

in  1888  reduced  from  twelve  to  seven. 


MARY  BAKER   EDDY  269 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Mesmer  not  only  sold  the 
secret  of  his  healing  at  a  high  price,  but  conceived  the  idea 
of  exacting  from  his  pupils  a  proportion  of  the  fees  received 
by  them  in  their  practice.  There  is  a  curious  similarity  in 
Mrs.  Eddy's  early  methods.  When  we  remember,  however, 
that  many  of  her  original  students — who  were  asked  to  pay 
£60  for  a  course  of  twelve  lectures — were  simply  shoe-hands 
employed  in  the  neighbouring  factories,  and  that  few  rose 
above  the  rank  of  artisan  or  small  farmer,  we  can  but  wonder 
at  Mesmer's  moderation  in  exacting  no  more  than  one 
hundred  louis  from  a  marquis,  a  farmer-general,  or  an 
ambassador.  Mrs.  Eddy,  again  like  her  great  predecessor, 
required  her  early  students  to  enter  into  a  bond  not  to  reveal 
the  secret ;  and  some  of  them  bound  themselves  to  pay  over 
to  her  10  per  cent,  of  the  yearly  income  derived  from  their 
practice  as  healers. 

Naturally,  arrangements  of  this  kind  led  to  constant  litiga- 
tion. In  1872  a  former  pupil,  Mrs,  Vickery,  brought  an 
action  against  Mrs.  Eddy  to  recover  150  dollars  paid  for 
tuition,  which  she  alleged  to  be  valueless ;  Mrs.  Vickery  won 
her  case.  In  1877  G.  W.  Barry,  once  a  favoured  disciple, 
brought  an  action  for  money  due  to  him  for  copying  and 
preparing  MSS.  for  the  press  ;  he  recovered  395  dollars.  In 
1878  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  brought  a  suit  against  Kennedy  to 
recover  750  dollars  alleged  to  be  due  ;  she  lost  her  case. 
She  brought  actions  against  three  other  pupils — Tuttle, 
Stanley,  and  Spofford — to  recover  unpaid  tuition  fees,  and 
lost  them  all. 

But  not  all  Mrs.  Eddy's  appearances  in  court  were  of  this 
squalid  character.  We  have  already  traced  the  rise,  amongst 
the  Spiritualists  and  Mental-healers,  of  the  strange  doctrine 
of  injurious  mental  influence.  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism 
became  from  this  date  onwards  the  nightmare  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
existence.  The  devil  whom  she  had  excluded  from  her 
theology  came  back  in  this  insidious  form.  And,  like  his 
prototype  in  the  Middle  Ages,  he  is  not  content  with  his 
more  serious  employments,  but  delights  in  acts  of  petty 
annoyance.    He  gives  his  enenyes  toothache  and  indigestion, 


270     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

plays  Old  Harry  with  the  printers,  freezes  the  water-pipes, 
and  makes  the  domestic  boilers  leak.  Each  of  Mrs,  Eddj's 
dethroned  favourites  has  in  turn  been  accused,  nay,  is  still 
accused,  of  practising  these  vile  arts.  The  chapter  on 
"  Dcmonology  "  in  the  1881  edition  of  Science  and  Health^ 
contains  an  almost  incredible  attack  on  Richard  Kennedy. 
"  His  power  to  heal,"  she  writes,  "  failed  because  of  his  sin. 
His  mental  malpractice  has  made  him  a  moral  leper,"  He 
spreads  ruin  and  death  around  ;  he  has  perverted  wholesome 
human  affection,  alienated  wives  from  their  husbands,  broken 
up  happy  homes,  has  caused  many  to  be  affected  with  disease 
and  ultimately  brought  them  to  death. 

In  January,  187S,  Daniel  Spofford,  who  had  managed  the 
sale  of  Mrs,  Eddy's  book  and  for  some  years  been  one  of 
her  prime  favourites,  was  exjiellcd  from  the  Association  of 
Christian  Scientists  for  "  immorality,"  2  A  few  months  later 
he  was  brought  before  the  law-court  at  Salem  on  the  charge 
that  he  was  a  Mesmerist  and  that  he  had  "at  divers  times 
and  places  and  with  intent  to  injure  the  plaintiff  [a  disciple 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's]  caused  the  plaintiff  by  means  of  the  said 
power  or  art  great  suffering  of  body  and  mind  and  severe 
facial  pains  and  neuralgia."  In  Salem  two  hundred  years 
ago  the  denunciations  of  one  hysterical  girl  were  sufficient  to 
procure  the  condemnation  of  many  to  death.  But  times  are 
changed.  Mrs.  Eddy  made  her  appearance  in  court  supported 
by  a  crowd  of  twenty  witnesses  to  denounce  this  practitioner 
of  the  New  Witchcraft,  But  all  in  vain,  Solvuntnr  risu 
tahulcB. 

The  sequel  to  this  amazing  prosecution  was  more  amazing 
still.  If  Mrs,  Eddy  was  afraid,  genuinely  afraid,  of  Spofford 
and  his  devilish  arts,  Spofford  was  quite  as  much  afraid  of 

'  This  chapter  has  for  some  years  ceased  to  appear  in  the  successive 
editions  of  Science  and  Hca"h.  The  chapter  on  Animal  Magnetism  in 
the  most  recent  editions  is  shorn  of  all  personal  references. 

'  "Immorality"  is  used  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  an  esoteric  sense,  as  mean- 
ing disloyalty  to  the  principles  of  Christian  Science.  Any  Christian 
Scientist  at  the  present  day  who  is  found  disloyal  is  liable  to  tiic  same 
accusation  of  "  immorality."  Compare  Mrs.  Eddy's  definition  of  an 
adulteress  as  one  who  has  adulterated  truth  ! 


MARY   BAKER  EDDY  271 

Mrs.  Eddy.  In  the  course  of  the  same  year  (1878)  there 
came  to  him  a  mysterious  stranger,  who  represented  that  he 
had  been  suborned  by  the  Christian  Scientists  to  make  away 
with  the  enemy  of  their  faith.  Spofford  fled  into  safe  hiding. 
Arens,  who  had  succeeded  Spofford  as  prime  minister,  and 
Eddy,  the  blameless  consort,  were  arrested  for  conspiracy  to 
murder.  Preliminary  evidence  was  taken.  But  the  original 
informant  was  a  bad  lot,  too  well  known  to  the  police,  and 
the  other  witnesses  for  the  prosecution,  with  two  exceptions, 
were  not  much  better.  The  two  exceptions,  however,  were 
detectives,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  explain  their  evidence.  On 
the  other  hand,  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  the  blameless  consort, 
was  obviously  not  of  the  stuff  of  which  midnight  murderers 
are  made.  The  defendants  were  admitted  to  bail  of  three 
thousand  dollars  each.  In  the  event  the  State  Attorney, 
after  considering  the  evidence,  refused  to  proceed.  Spofford's 
honesty  can  hardly  be  questioned  ;  the  whole  incident 
remains  inexplicable.  But  it  affords,  at  any  rate,  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  real  terror  inspired  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  extraordinary 
vindictiveness.i 

A  year  or  two  later  Arens  himself,  who  had  presented  the 
petition  against  the  New  Witchcraft  in  the  court  of  Salem, 
fell  from  his  high  estate  and  was  numbered  amongst  the 
malpractitioners.  In  June,  1882,  Eddy  died  ;  \.\\q  post-mortem 
examination  showed  that  the  cause  of  death  was  heart 
disease.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  persisted  in  her  belief  that  the 
death  was  due  to  "  arsenic,"  mentally  administered  by  means 
of  Malicious  Mesmerism,  and  told  a  Boston  reporter  so.^ 
Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  Mrs.  Eddy's  terror  appears  to 
have  been  perfectly  genuine ;  she  is  said  to  have  been  half- 
paralysed  with  fear  after  Eddy's  death  at  this  palpable  proof 

'  Another  woman  founder  of  a  new  religion,  Mdmc,  Blavatsky,  seems 
to  have  had  the  power  of  inspiring  equal  terror  in  those  who  had 
incurred  her  displeasure.  The  present  writer  is  acquainted  with  two 
instances  in  which  Mdme.  Blavatsky  was  able  to  avert  exposure  by 
this  means. 

•  See  article  in  the  Boston  Post  for  June  5,  1882,  quoted  in  McLur^s 
Magazine. 


272     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

of  the  power  of  her  enemies.  A  secret  circle  was  forthwith 
organised  amongst  her  most  devoted  followers,  which  met 
daily  for  "adverse  treatment."  But  the  devil  seems  to  have 
had  the  best  of  it.  Richard  Kennedy  and  the  other  male- 
factors were  not  a  penny  the  worse  for  all  the  retributive 
evil  invoked  upon  their  heads. 

In  October,  1881,  to  continue  the  history,  there  was  a 
serious  secession  from  the  Christian  Science  Association. 
Many  of  the  older  and  most  influential  members  left.  In  a 
circular  letter  explaining  their  reason  for  this  step  they 
stated  that,  while  still  acknowledging  the  truth  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  teaching,  they  deplored  "her  frequent  ebullitions  of 
temper,  love  of  money,  and  appearance  of  hypocrisy." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  famous  Metaphysical  College,  of  which  she 
was  the  president  and  the  sole  professor,  had  been  founded 
in  the  early  part  of  the  same  year.  She  now  thought  it 
time  to  remove  the  College  and  herself  from  Lynn,  and  in 
1882  she  came  to  Boston.  There  her  fame  and  influence 
grew  rapidly.  In  April,  1883,  the  Journal  of  Christian 
Science — a  monthly  periodical — was  started.  In  1886  was 
founded  the  National  Christian  Science  Association,  and 
in  1S87  there  were  one  hundred  and  eleven  professional 
Christian  Science  healers  and  twenty-one  academies  for  the 
teaching  of  the  new  gospel.  Two  years  later,  however,  fresh 
dissensions  arose  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  supremacy  was  seriously 
endangered.  Ultimately  the  dissentients  were  forced  to 
secede.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  from  this  time  initiated  a  remark- 
able change  of  policy.  In  1889  she  retired  from  Boston  to 
the  small  provincial  town  of  Concord  and  there  shut  herself 
up  in  a  hermit-like  seclusion.  She  expressly  forbade  her 
students  henceforward  to  consult  her,  "  verbally  or  through 
letters,"  on  personal  or  business  affairs.  She  resigned  the 
editorship  of  the  Journal,  she  disbanded — if  that  is  the 
correct  term — the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,'  and, 
finally,  she  dissolved  her  Church  organisation.     1\iQ  Journal 

'  Of  late  years  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  has  been 
reconstituted.  The  Sessions  last  for  "  not  over  one  week  "  in  the  year 
(Church  Manual,  art.  xxx.). 


MARY  BAKER   EDDY  273 

explains  the  reason  for  this  last  action  as  follows :  "  The 
bonds  of  the  Church  were  thrown  away  so  that  its  members 
might  assemble  themselves  together  to  provoke  one  another 
to  good  works  in  the  bond  only  of  love." 

Three  or  four  years  later  the  Church  organisation  was 
restored.  But  it  was  not  the  same  organisation.  The  old 
Church  had  both  money  and  power.  The  present  Church 
has  neither.  Both  are  invested  exclusively  in  Mrs.  Eddy. 
Prior  to  the  enforced  dissolution  the  Church  members  had 
contributed  nearly  jCi,200  to  the  purchase  of  a  site  valued  at 
;^2,cxx»,  the  balance  being  held  on  mortgage.  "Guided  by 
divine  love,"  and  assisted  by  a  lawyer  who  has  since  been 
disbarred,  Mrs.  Eddy  got  the  mortgage  into  her  own  hands, 
foreclosed,  and  acquired  the  whole  site.  She  then  made  over 
the  property  to  a  Board  of  Trustees  chosen  by  herself  and 
responsible  to  her,  with  the  proviso  that,  on  any  breach  of  the 
trust  the  whole  property — on  which  now  stands  a  church 
which  has  cost  over  two  million  dollars  to  build — should 
revert  to  "  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  her  heirs  and  assigns  for 
ever."  But  Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  property  is  now  very  large. 
Her  lecture  classes — the  fees  for  the  whole  series  of  four 
courses  amounting  to  no  less  than  eight  hundred  dollars 
(£160) — were  crowded  in  these  later  years.  Her  writings 
are  sold  at  preposterous  prices  and  have  brought  her  in  very 
large  sums.  Of  Science  and  Health  upwards  of  half  a  million 
copies  have  been  sold.  In  its  cheapest  form  the  book  costs 
three  dollars  (in  England  12s.  6d.).  Many  editions  of  this 
book  have  appeared,  and  the  zealous  disciple  is  expected  to 
purchase  the  most  recent.^ 

So  far  back  as  1895  Mrs.  Eddy's  royalties  on  the  sale  of 

'  In  the  trust  deed  of  1892,  by  which  the  land  was  conveyed  for  the 
Mother  Church,  reference  is  made  to  the  71st  edition.  There  are  now 
between  400  and  500  editions.  Most  of  these  so-called  editions  are  no 
doubt  what  the  ordinary  publisher  would  call  a  new  impression — i.e., 
simply  a  fresh  batch  printed  from  the  stereo  plates.  But  there  have 
been  very  many — possibly  some  scores — of  new  editions  in  the  accepted 
sense.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  constantly  making  slight  verbal  changes,  and  on 
several  occasions  the  book  has  been  completely  revised  and  the  order 
of  the  chapters  changed. 


274     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

her  puhVicsitions /or  one  ^year  amounted  to  18,481  dollars — 
say  ;^3,700 ;  and  the  sales  have,  no  doubt,  very  largely  in- 
creased since  that  date.'  In  1887  Mrs.  Eddy  bought  a  house 
in  the  best  part  of  Boston  for  ^8,000.  On  her  return  to 
Boston  twenty  years  later  she  spent  ;6^2O,00O  on  a  house  and 
as  much  again,  it  is  said,  in  preparing  it  for  her  reception.  A 
recent  lawsuit  disclosed  that  her  personal  property  amounted 
in  1893  to  at  least  100,000  dollars,  and  in  1907  to  about  a 
million.2 

But  in  her  later  years,  at  any  rate,  it  is  not  money  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  seeks,  but  power.  And  she  has  power — power 
absolute  and  unlimited — over  the  organisation  which  she  has 
built  up.  The  government  of  the  Mother  Church  is  vested 
in  a  Board  of  Directors,  President,  Clerk,  and  Treasurer. 
Mrs.  Eddy  nominated  the  original  members  of  the  Board  of 
Directors,  and  all  vacancies  are  filled  subject  to  her  approval. 
The  President,  the  Clerk,  and  the  Treasurer  are  elected  by 

•  Mrs.  Eddy's  other  books  are  priced  at  proportionately  high  rates. 
Retrospection  and  Introspection,  a  booklet  of  scarce  20,000  words,  costs  a 
dollar — and  30,000  copies  had  been  sold  in  1906.  At  6d.  the  book 
would  have  yielded  a  good  profit.  And  there  are  other  sources  of 
income.  Mrs.  Eddy's  photograph,  in  its  cheapest  form,  sells  for  one 
dollar.  In  announcing  in  the  Journal  its  issue  Mrs.  Eddy  adds,  "  I 
simply  ask  th.it  those  who  love  me  purchase  this  portrait."  Then  there 
is  the  "  Mother  spoon  " — a  silver  spoon  bearing  a  portrait  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
a  picture  of  Pleasant  View,  and  a  motto.  In  pushing  the  sale  of  this 
article  Mrs.  Eddy  writes  over  her  own  signature,  "  Mother  expects  that 
each  Scientist  shall  purchase  at  least  one  spoon,  and  those  who  can 
afford  it,  one  dozen  spoons."  The  price  is  5  dollars  (see  McLure's 
Magazine,  May,  1908). 

"  From  the  same  source  it  appeared  that  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  purposes  of 
taxation,  returned  hor  property  in  1901  as  only  iQ.ooo  dollars,  and  her 
Secretary,  Calvin  Frye,  had  year  after  year  repeated  the  statement. 

The  suit  in  question  was  brought  by  Mrs.  Eddys  son,  Mr.  G.  W. 
Glover,  and  others  as  "  next  friends,''  against  Calvin  Frye  and  the 
officers  of  the  Mother  Church,  praying  the  court  to  determine  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  incompetent,  through  failing  powers,  to  manage  her 
property.  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  a  counterstroke,  appointed  responsible 
trustees  for  the  management  of  her  estate,  and  transferred  to  them 
property  amounting  to  913,000  dollars  (report  of  the  "Masters  " 
interview  with  Mrs.  Eddy  on  August  14,  1907,  in  Boston  Herald,  quoted 
by  Powell,  op.  cit.,  p.  224).     Mr.  Glover's  action  was  withdrawn. 


MARY   BAKER   EDDY  275 

the  Board  of  Directors,  again  subject  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval. 
Any  officer  of  the  Church  can  be  dismissed  at  her  pleasure.^ 
The  original  constitution  included  the  Executive,  or  First, 
Members,  and  in  their  case  the  initiative  was  taken  by 
Mrs.  Eddy,  the  procedure  being  apparently  modelled  on 
that  of  an  older  Church.  Mrs.  Eddy  would  write  to  the 
Directors  requesting  them  to  elect  certain  persons  to  the 
Executive,  and  "they  shall  be  elected,"  the  rule  continued, 
"by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Board  of  Directors."  2  If  in 
issuing  a  conge  d'elire  in  this  fashion  Mrs.  Eddy  would  seem 
to  have  borrowed  a  royal  prerogative,  by  another  bye-law  she 
assumes  a  power  which  not  the  most  despotic  of  Western 
monarchs  would  venture  to  claim.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  empowered 
to  summon  any  Christian  Scientist  from  his  ordinary  duties, 
and  call  upon  him  to  live  in  her  house  and  serve  her  in  any 
capacity  she  may  choose.  His  salary  in  such  event  is  to  be 
fixed  at  ^200  a  year  and  expenses.  If  Mrs.  Eddy  wants  a 
housemaid  or  a  cook,  the  Board  of  Directors  "  shall  immedi- 
ately appoint  a  proper  member  of  this  Church  therefor,  and 
the  appointee  shall  go  immediately  in  obedience  to  the  call. 
•  He  that  loveth  father  and  mother  more  than  me  is  not 
worthy  of  me.'  "  3 

But  Mrs.  Eddy  aspires  to  control  the  lives  and,  so  far  as 
possible,  the  very  thoughts  of  her  followers.  No  Christian 
Scientist  may  belong  to  any  club  or  society  of  any  kind — 
with  the  exception  of  the  Freemasons  and  one  or  two  other 
organisations.  His  membership  of  the  Christian  Science 
Church  is  held  sufficient  for  all  social  and  intellectual  needs.4 
None  of  the  disciples  is  allowed  to  read  any  book  dealing 
with  religion  or  metaphysics  except  the  Bible  and  Mrs. 
Eddy's  own  works.     In  the  meetings  for  personal  testimony 

'  See  Church  Manual  (1908),  article  xi.  sections  7  and  9,  and  article  i. 
section  5. 

"  The  bye-laws  relating  to  executive  members  were  repealed  in  July, 
1908  {Church  Manual,  1908,  p.  18). 

'  Church  Manual  (1908),  p.  69.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  personally  responsible 
for  the  wording  of  the  bye-laws  and  the  selection  of  the  scriptural 
quotation. 

*  Church  Manual,  article  viii.  section  16. 


276     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

one  may  again  and  again  hear  the  convert  relate  that  he  has 
shut  up  all  other  books,  rejected  all  profane  philosophies,  and 
gladly  acquiesced  in  drawing  his  mental  nourishment  from 
Science  and  Health  alone.  If  his  library  happened  to  include 
any  books  on  Animal  Magnetism,  he  would  sometimes  go 
further,  and  burn  them. 

Originally  the  Christian  Science  Churches  had  pastors, 
who,  as  in  other  religious  bodies,  preached  or  lectured  to 
the  congregation.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  scented  danger,  and  in 
1895  she  issued  a  ukase  that  there  should  be  no  more 
preaching.'  There  has  been  none  since  that  date.  In 
every  Christian  Science  meeting— and  the  branches  are 
now  numbered  by  hundreds — the  service  is  the  same.  It 
consists  exclusively  of  the  reading  of  certain  selected  pas- 
sages from  the  Bible,  and  of  passages,  purporting  to  be 
elucidatory,  from  Science  and  Health,  intersjjersed  with  the 
singing  of  hymns.  The  only  prayer  used  is  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  followed,  line  after  line,  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  para- 
phrase. 

The  followers  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  then,  are  privileged  to  hear 
no  sermons.  They  also  hear  few  lectures.  No  Christian 
Scientist,  except  those  appointed  for  the  purpose,  may  lecture 
upon  Christian  Science ;  and  a  copy  of  e^ch  lecture  must  be 
sent,  before  delivery,  to  the  clerk  in  Boston.  No  Christian 
Scientist,  again,  may  engage  in  a  public  debate  on  Christian 
Science  without  the  consent  of  the  Board  of  Directors. 
There  are  special  officers  appointed  to  answer  all  attacks 
in  the  Press  or  furnish  information  to  the  public.  The  ordi- 
nary Christian  Scientist  publishes  any  defence  of  his  faith 
under  peril  of  discipline.  The  result  is  that  Christian  Science 
has  no  literature.  There  is  Science  and  Health  ;  there  are 
Mrs.  Eddy's  other  writings  ;  there  are  the  Journal  and  the 
Sentinel,  both  periodicals  inspired  by  Mrs.  Eddy  ;  and  there 
are  a  few  magazine  articles.  Literally,  that  is  all.  Herself, 
presumably,  understanding  no  foreign  language,  Mrs.  Eddy 

'  "  In  1895,"  she  writes,  referring  to  this  ukase,  "I  ordained  the  Bible 
and  Science  and  Health  ■u.'ith  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  as  the  Pastor,  on  tiiis 
planet,  of  all  the  Churches  of  the  Christian  Science  Denomination." 


MARY   BAKER   EDDY  277 

'.  .  ^     i'd  creep  in  undetected. 

Notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  discipline,  and  the 
incredible  meagreness  of  the  intellectual  fare  offered,  the 
members  of  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston  in  June,  1907,  num- 
bered 43,876,  and  the  total  membership  was  probably  between 
50,000  and  60,000.1  There  are  now  upwards  of  1,100  branch 
Churches  2  and  Societies,  and  over  4,000  authorised  healers.3 
The  great  majority  of  the  Christian  Scientists  are,  of  course, 
residents  of  the  United  States ;  and  in  many  of  the  New 
England  towns  large  and  costly  churches  have  been  built 
by  the  contributions  of  the  faithful. 4  But  the  movement  has 
obtained  some  hold  in  this  country,  and  is  still  spreading.5 

Such  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  kingdom — and  it  is  all  her  own. 
Letat,  dest  lui.  And  in  these  latter  days  she  has  assumed 
more  than  royal  state.  On  her  journey  from  Concord  to 
Boston  two  years  ago  a  special  train  conveyed  her  and  her 
party,  preceded  by  a  pilot  engine,  and  followed  at  some  dis- 
tance by  a  third  engine  to  guard  the  rear.  No  Christian 
Scientist  may  approach  the  Pastor  Emeritus  uninvited ;  none 
may  haunt  the  streets  in  the  hope  of  seeing  her.^  For  some 
years,  when  otherwise  invisible  to  her  faithful  followers,  the 
Pastor  Emeritus  has  once  a  year  allowed  a  pilgrimage  to  her 
house  at  Concord,  and  has  shown  herself  for  a  few  moments 
on  the  balcony.  Those  who  cannot  take  part  in  this  annual 
pilgrimage  can  still  visit  the  empty  shrine — the  "  Mother's 


»  No  more  exact  figures  are  available.  The  Church  Manual,  articl'e 
viii.  section  28,  now  prohibits  "  numbering  the  people." 

"  I.e.,  Societies,  not  buildings. 

3  These  figures  are  taken  from  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for 
November,  1908. 

<  Some  of  them  are  fine  examples  of  classical  architecture  (see  the 
illustrations  accompanying  articles  in  the  Arena,  U.S.A.,  for  January 
and  May,  1907).  The  structure  in  Sloane  Terrace,  it  should  be  added, 
is  by  no  means  a  favourable  example  of  Christian  Science  architecture. 

s  According  to  the  Journal  for  November,  igoS,  there  are  37 
"  Churches  "  and  Societies  and  161  Christian  Science  practitioners  in 
these  islands. 

*  Church  Manual,  article  viii.  section  27. 


278     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

room  "  in  the  Mother  Church  at  Boston — and  marvel  at  the 
gold-plated  water-taps  on  the  washstand  and  at  the  stainctl- 
glass  window  which  represents  Mrs.  Eddy  seated  in  the  attic 
room  at  Lynn  reading  the  Bible,  whilst  the  rays  of  a  star  fall 
through  the  uncurtained  skylight  on  her  bowed  head. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Christian  Science  brings  healing,  comfort,  and  the  hope  of  a  new  life 
— Various  testimonies  quoted — The  substance  of  the  new  philosophy 
and  religion  :  mainly  derived  from  Quimby,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  a  disciple, 
not  a  plagiarist — Characteristic  defects  of  her  style  and  thought,  less 
conspicuous  in  Science  and  Health — The  nature  of  her  '  inspiration  " — 
Characteristic  tenets  held  in  common  with  earlier  prophets  :  symbolic 
interpretation  of  Bible  :  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism  :  condemnation 
of  friendship  and  marriage :  parthenogenesis :  decrease  of  human 
mortahty:  our  Father-Mother  God — Her  claim  to  be  the  divinely 
appointed  author  of  a  new  gospel. 

THE  secret  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  extraordinary  influence 
over  her  followers  can  be  told  in  a  word.  She  has 
brought  them  healing  and  comfort.  There  are,  of 
course,  no  statistics  available  of  Christian  Science  cures.  The 
man  who  has  failed  to  achieve  a  cure  by  faith  has  nothing  of 
interest  to  tell;  and  in  telling  it  he  writes  himself  down  either 
an  infidel  or  a  fool.  Nor  are  the  cures  claimed  to  have  been 
effected  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  disciples  recorded  in  a  manner 
acceptable  to  science.  We  look  in  vain  here  for  the  attesta- 
tions of  qualified  physicians.  We  can  rarely  extract  even 
a  plain,  straightforward  account  of  the  case.  "  Christian 
Science,"  says  Dr.  Goddard,  "  has  unwillingly  yielded  its 
facts  and  philosophy  to  our  work."^  The  general  attitude 
of  the  believer  is  further  emphasised  by  H.  W.  Dresser. 
"  Actual  facts,"  he  writes,  "  are  almost  never  procurable  from 
a   Christian    Scientist.     There  was  '  nothing '  troubling  the 

'  "The  Effect  of  Mind  on  Body,"  American  journal  of  Psychology, 
vol.  X.  (1899),  p.  444. 

279 


28o    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

patient  in  the  first  place  ;  he  was  cured  of '  nothing,'  so  there 
is  '  nothing '  to  relate."  ^ 

But  though  evidence  is  rarely  forthcoming  such  as  would 
enable  a  physician  to  determine  what  was  the  nature  of  the 
disease,  and  what  the  significance  of  the  cure,  the  testimony 
of  thousands  of  persons  who  for  years  had  believed  them- 
selves seriously  ill,  and  now  believe  themselves  free  from 
disease  and  from  pain,  is  entitled  to  some  weight.  Weekly 
meetings  for  "  testimony "  are  held  in  the  Christian  Science 
Churches,  at  which,  one  after  another,  men,  women,  and 
children,  rise  to  give  thanks  to  God  and  Mrs.  Eddy  for  their 
relief  from  ailments  covering  the  whole  range  of  human 
suffering,  from  chapped  hands  to  cancer.  The  diagnoses 
may  be  untrustworthy,  but  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  the 
honesty  of  the  witnesses.  They  did  unquestionably  feel  ill, 
and  they  now  feel  well.  The  sceptic  may  say,  and  in  many 
cases  not  unreasonably,  that  the  "  feeling"  was  all  there  was 
of  the  disease.  But  they  did  feel  pain,  and  now  they  feel  no 
pain.  On  that  point,  at  any  rate,  the  testimony  of  an  honest 
witness  cannot  be  gainsaid.  Some  of  the  cures  have  been 
published.  In  the  1907  edition  oi  Science  and  Healih  \hcrQ 
is  a  chapter  entitled  "  Fruitage,"  which  contains  nearly  one 
hundred  testimonies  from  grateful  patients,  selected,  as  the 
editor  tells  us,  out  of  some  thousands.^  In  reading  through 
these  cases  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  with  the  general 
resemblance  to  the  evidence  cited  in  Chapter  I.  from  Des- 
lon's  patients.  There  are,  of  course,  minor  differences ;  the 
part  played  120  years  ago  by  the  spleen  is  now  taken  by  the 
liver  or  the  kidneys.  A  great  majority  of  the  Christian 
Science  patients,  moreover,  appear  to  be  women; 3  whereas 
in  Deslon's  book  the  men  were  in  the  majority.  Moreover, 
the  later  testimonies  proceed  exclusively  from  the  patients 
themselves  ;    they  have   not   been    inspired   or  edited  by  a 

•  Methods  and  Problems  of  Spirilual  Healing,  p.  37. 

*  Other  testimonies  are  quoted  in  the  Miscellaneous  Writings  (1900), 
pp.  401-471,  and  scattered  through  the  pages  of  the  Journal. 

3  "  Appear  to  be,"  for  the  sex  is  not,  in  most  cases,  expressly  stated, 
and  the  testimonies  are  signed  with  initials  only. 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  281 

physician.  But  the  ailments  described  are  of  the  same 
general  character  as  in  the  earlier  book.  In  some  cases  the 
nature  of  the  illness  is  not  described  at  all,  or  the  description 
is  perfectly  indefinite.  Here  are  a  few  descriptions  taken  at 
random  :  Malignant  cancer — chronic  constipation,  nervous 
headache,  astigmatism  and  hernia — chronic  invalid  (bowel 
trouble,  bronchitis,  and  a  number  of  other  troubles) — fibroid 
tumour  of  sixteen  years'  standing — epilepsy  of  twelve  years' 
standing — broken  arm — sore  eyes  of  many  years'  stand- 
ing— valvular  heart  disease,  lifelong — seventeen  years'  indi- 
gestion and  gastritis — internal  cancer  and  consumption, 
many  years — numerous  complaints,  hereditary  and  chronic 
(the  only  description  given  of  any  particular  complaint  is 
"eyes  in  a  dreadful  condition") — spots  on  skin  from  liver, 
of  twelve  years'  standing — twenty  years  not  a  day  without 
pain — congenital  deafness,  dropsy,  and  consumption — semi- 
invalid  for  many  years — catarrh  of  stomach  for  five  years 
— so-called  incurable  spinal  disease  for  ten  years — illness 
of  frequent  occurrence — so  ill  that  life  was  a  burden  to  me  : 
stomach  trouble,  inward  weakness,  and  bilious  attacks. 

Like  Deslon's  patients,  these  later  witnesses  claim,  for  the 
most  part,  to  have  suffered  for  many  years,  and  from  a 
complication  of  ailments.  But  in  one  most  important  respect 
the  later  records  are  the  more  valuable.  They  have  fre- 
quently been  written  some  years  after  the  cure.  Whatever 
the  nature  of  the  disease,  then,  the  cure  in  these  cases  has 
been  lasting.  These  people  did  for  years  feel  sick  and  miser- 
able ;  they  have  now,  for  years,  been  feeling  strong  and 
healthy.  Life  before  coming  across  S device  and  Health  v^zs, 
a  burden  ;  it  is  now  a  joy.  Testimony  of  this  kind  is  proof 
against  criticism. 

So  much,  then,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  done  for  her  followers. 
But,  as  all  who  have  any  personal  acquaintances  in  the  ranks 
of  Christian  Scientists  know,  she  has  done  more.  The 
speakers  at  testimony  meetings  rarely  forget  to  testify  that 
bodily  health  is  the  least  of  the  benefits  which  they  owe  to 
God  and  Mrs.  Eddy.  They  tell  us  of  a  changed  outlook  on 
life,  of  happiness   instead    of  suffering,    perpetual   peace  in 


282     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

place  of  worry  and  anxiety,  love  and  goodwill  where  there 
had  been  quarrels  and  contentions.  The  lives  of  many 
Christian  Scientists  do,  in  fact,  form  the  best  advertisement 
of  their  creed.  In  the  written  accounts  less  stress  is  laid 
upon  the  moral  benefits.  The  witnesses  are  for  the  most 
part  too  preoccupied  with  their  release  from  physical  suffer- 
ing. But  there  are  some  significant  testimonies.  One  speaks 
of  "a  nobler  aim  and  purpose  in  life";  others  of  peace  and 
harmony  restored,  of  spiritual  uplifting  and  regeneration, 
of  release  from  a  sense  of  fear.     Says  one : — 

"  I  ran  up  the  street,  saw  people  passing  to  and  fro,  and  said  to 
myself,  '  My  God  !  is  this  thing  in  the  world  and  you  don't  know  it  ? ' 
It  was  then  I  realised  that  I  did  not  have  to  have  human  will.  I  had 
found  my  God,  knew  He  was  always  beside  me,  and  I  had  only  to 
declare  Him.  Smoking,  the  habit  of  a  lifetime,  left  me  in  a  night. 
Veil  after  veil  has  been  torn  aside,  illusion  after  illusion  has  blown 
awav.  I  am  now  a  healthy,  prosperous,  and  happy  man.  .  .  .  Mrs. 
Eddv's  wonderful  book  has  unlocked  for  me  tiie  great  saying  spoken 
by  Jesus,  'Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free!'"' 

In  short,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  given  her  disciples  a  religion. 
But  the  manifestations  of  this  new  religion  are  in  some 
respects  curiously  unlike  what  we  have  been  accustomed  to 
connect  with  the  word.  The  religion  of  Christian  Science 
oils  the  wheels  of  the  domestic  machinery,  smooths  out  busi- 
ness troubles,  releases  from  fear,  promotes  happiness.  But 
it  is  entirely  egoistic  in  expression.  Nothing  that  pro- 
motes the  happiness  and  well-being  of  an  individual  can,  of 
course,  be  without  effect  on  the  happiness  and  well-being  of 
those  around  him.  But  for  Christian  Scientists  there  is  no 
recognised  service  to  their  fellows,  beyond  the  force  of  their 
example.  Poverty  and  sin,  like  sickness,  are  illusions,  errors 
of  "  mortal  mind,"  and  cannot  be  alleviated  by  material 
methods.2     [f  ^  man  is  sick  he  does  not  need  drugs  ;  if  poor, 

•  Science  and  Health  (1907),  p.  662.  See  ajso  testimonies  to  like  effect 
in  Miscellaneous  Writings  (1900),  pp.  401,  sqq. 

'  There  are  no  charities  or  institutions  of  any  kind  for  social  service 
in  connection  with  the  Christian  Science  Churches.    Those  who  can 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  283 

he  has  no  need  of  money  ;  if  suffering,  of  material  help  or 
even  sympathy.  For  the  cure  in  all  cases  must  be  sought 
within. 

The  New  Religion,  then,  is  without  the  enthusiasm  of 
Humanity.  It  is,  in  fact,  without  enthusiasm  of  any  kind. 
We  shall  look  in  vain  here  for  spiritual  rapture,  for 
ecstatic  contemplation  of  the  divine.  There  is  no  place 
here  for  any  of  the  passions  which  are  associated  with 
^Christianity,  nor,  indeed,  for  any  exalted  emotion.  There 
can  be  no  remorse  where  there  is  no  sin  ;  compassion, 
when  the  suffering  is  unreal,  can  only  be  mischievous ; 
friendship,  as  we  shall  see  later,  is  a  snare,  and  the  love 
of  man  and  woman  a  hindrance  to  true  spirituality.  There 
is  no  mystery  about  this  final  revelation,  and  there  is  no 
room,  therefore,  for  wonder  and  awe.  Here  are  no  "long- 
drawn  aisles  and  fretted  vault " ;  the  Scientist's  outlook 
on  the  spiritual  world  is  as  plain  and  bare  as  the  walls 
of  his  temple,  shining  white  under  the  abundant  radiance 
of  the  electric  lamps.  And  it  boasts  as  full  an  illumina- 
tion, for  Mrs.  Eddy's  gospel  reached  its  four  hundred  and 
fortieth  edition  two  years  ago. 

The  central  tenet  of  the  philosophy  taught  by  Mrs. 
Eddy  is  the  non-reality  of  disease,  sin,  matter ;  these 
all  are  illusions  of  "  mortal  mind,"  itself  having  no  real 
existence. 

The  fundamental  propositions  of  "  divine  Metaphysics  " 
arc  as  follows : — 

"  I.  God  is  All  in  All. 

"  2.  God  is  Good.    Good  is  Mind. 

"3.  God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter. 

"  4.  Life,  God,  Omnipotent  good,  deny  death,  evil,  sin,  disease." 


afford  to  pay  the  fees  may  attend  Christian  Science  classes.     A  Sund 
School  for  the  benefit  of  children  and  young  persons  is  held  on  Sunday 
mornings,   and  there   are   reading-rooms  in   which   all    Mrs.   Eddy' 
writings,  the  Journal  of  Christian  Science,  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel, 
and  the  few  pamphlets  written  by  the  few  authorised  exponents  of  th 
doctrine  can  be  read.     For  these  educational  facilities,  it  should  be 
added,  no  charge  is  made. 


284     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

These  propositions  can,  it  is  claimed,  be  proved  mathe- 
matically. Like  an  equation,  they  remain  true  if  the  terms 
are  inverted,  thus  : — 

"  All  in  All  is  God,  Mind  is  Good,  Good  is  God,  and  so  on."* 

Two  or  three  passages  may  be  quoted  as  illustrating  the 
practical  application  of  the  doctrine. 

"  You  say,"  she  writes,  " '  I  have  burned  my  finger.'      This  g 
is  an  exact  statement,  more  exact  than   you   suppose  ;  for 
mortal  mind,  and  not  matter,  burns  it." 2 

Again,  "  You  say  a  boil  is  painful  ;  but  that  is  impossible, 
for  matter  without  mind  is  not  painful.  The  boil  simply 
manifests,  through  inflammation  and  swelling,  a  belief  in 
pain;  and  this  belief  is  called  a  boil."  3 

Drugs  are  stupid  substitutes  for  Divine  Mind  ;  they  have 
no  power  in  themselves  ;  they  operate  by  "  the  law  of  a 
general  belief"  4  A  disease,  in  the  terminology  of  the 
sect,  is  a  "  belief,"  or  a  "  claim,"  and  the  proper  treatment  is 
to  "  deny  "  it,  or  to  "  demonstrate  "  over  it. 

Of  course  there  are  difficulties  in  the  practical  application 
of  this  theory  of  the  non-reality  of  matter,  and  Mrs.  Eddy's 
interpretation  of  Genesis  makes  the  head  swim.  In  one 
place  she  states  that  "  the  animals  created  by  God  are 
not  carnivorous,"  5  from  which  we  must  infer  that  God 
created  a  vegetarian  lion,  and  man  supplied  the  teeth, 
claws,  and  stomach.  The  existence  of  pain,  cruelty,  and 
disease  is  not  explained  b\'  denying  it.  You  cannot 
solve  the  insoluble  problem  by  calling  evil  "an  awful 
unreality";  and  if  it  is  true  that  "God  is  ignorant  of  the 
existence  of  mortal  mentality," ^  it  would  seem  to  follow 
that  His  knowledge  and  therefore  His  power  are  by  so 
much  diminished.  But  if  Mrs.  Eddy  has  failed  to  guess 
the  riddle  of  the  Sphinx,  she  is,  of  course,  in  no  worse 
case  than    her    predecessors.     In    this   respect,  at  any  rate, 

■  Science  and  Health  (1907),  p.  113.  »  Ibid.,  p.  161. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  153.  *  Ibid.,  pp.  155,  158,  160. 

s  Ibid.,  p.  514.  *  Ibid.,  p.  512. 


CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE  285 

she  may  claim  to  be  classed  with  Democritus  and  Plato, 
with  Spinoza,  Descartes,  and  Kant. 

So  far  Mrs,  Eddy's  philosophy  would  seem  to  be  simply 
a  restatement  of  Quimby's.  It  is  obvious,  indeed,  that  she 
owes  much  to  Quimby.  We  know  from  her  own  words  that 
for  some  years  she  regarded  him  as  her  master.  We  know 
from  other  sources  that  during  those  years  she  carried  about 
with  her  a  manuscript  of  Quimby's,  and  taught  from  it. 
And  apart  from  the  similarity  of  the  doctrine,  the  numerous 
coincidences  in  the  terminology  would  be  sufficient  to  prove 
the  debt.  The  very  phrase  "  Christian  Science  "  is  Quimby's. 
So  is  the  curious  use  of  "  Science  "  to  connote  all  that  other 
religions  signify  by  "  faith."  To  both,  again,  "  God  is 
Principle."  The  classing  of  "  Mind  "  (Quimby),  "  Mortal 
Mind "  (Mrs.  Eddy)  amongst  the  things  that  don't  count 
is  peculiar  to  the  two  writers.  Characteristic  also,  though 
not  peculiar — since,  as  Mr.  Wiggin  informs  us,  it  is  an 
old  Gnostic  heresy — is  the  distinction  between  "  Jesus  "  and 
"  Christ."  I 

But  to  admit  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  a  pupil  of  Quimby  is  not  to 
deny  her  right  to  be  heard  on  her  own  account.  Recent  critics 
have  perhaps  over-emphasised  the  relationship  to  meet  Mrs. 
Eddy's  reiterated  denials. 2     We  are  all  the  pupils  of  all  those 

'  "  Christ  was  not  crucified,  that  doom  was  Jesus'  part  "  {Christ  and 
Christmas,  by  Mrs.   Eddy). 

'  Mrs.  Eddy  has  for  many  years  persistently  denied  her  indebtedness 
to  Quimby,  and  asserted  that  the  latter  was  only  a  Mesmerist,  or  that 
he  healed  by  electricity.  She  has  even  claimed  that,  so  far  from  being 
indebted  for  her  ideas  to  his  writings,  it  was  she  who  corrected  his 
random  scribblings  and  put  them  into  intelligible  shape.  When  Julius 
Dresser  published  some  of  the  letters  and  articles  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  lavished  praise  upon  Quimby  as  her  Healer  and  Teacher  she 
invoked  her  serviceable  fiend,  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism.  She 
wrote  to  the  Boston  Post  (March  7,  1883)  as  follows  :  "  Did  I  write  those 
articles  purporting  to  be  mine  ?  I  might  have  written  them  twenty  or 
thirty  years  ago,  for  I  was  under  the  mesmeric  treatment  of  Dr.  Quimby 
from  1862  until  his  death.  .  .  .  My  head  was  so  turned  by  Animal 
Magnetism  and  will-power,  under  treatment,  that  I  might  have  written 
something  as  hopelessly  incorrect  as  the  articles  now  pubHshed  in  the 
Dresser  pamphlet."  For  her  own  recent  account  of  the  matter  see 
Miscellaneous   Writings,  "InkWng'i  Historic,"  p.  378;  and  Retrospection 


286     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

who  have  worked  and  thought  before  us.  However  large  the 
share  of  the  inheritance  which  we  may  seem  to  derive  from 
this  or  that  predecessor,  the  debt  is  in  all  cases  a  collective 
one.  Our  inheritance  is  swollen  by  legacies  from  many 
sources.  And  each  of  us  adds  something — little  enough 
jjerhaps — of  his  own.  Mrs.  Kdd)',  no  doubt,  proceeds  from 
Ouimby,  but  as  the  topmost  branch  of  a  tree  proceeds 
and  draws  nourishment  from  the  branch  below.  Both  are 
outgrowths  of  the  Tree  of  Life.  Mrs.  Eddy  has,  in  fact, 
realised  Quimby's  philosophy.  She  has  made  it  part  of  her 
very  self  by  pondering  over  it,  but,  above  all,  by  living  it  in 
her  own  person.  The  work  was  begun,  as  we  have  seen, 
with  the  fall  on  the  ice  in  1866.  No  doubt  in  the  next  ten 
years  there  was  occasion  for  much  "  demonstration "  over 
false  belief  in  pain  and  sickness.  There  was  also  probably 
much  hard  intellectual  work,  for  Mrs.  Eddy  had  to  learn  her 
trade  as  a  writer,  and  with  all  her  efforts  has  learnt  it  but 
imperfectly  even  now.  However  deeply  in  her  youth  she 
may  have  studied  Greek  and  Latin,  Logic  and  the  Moral 
Sciences,  the  writings  of  her  maturer  years  betray  as  little 
taint  of  literary  culture  as  of  capacity  for  ordinary  human 
reasoning.  She  has  had  obviously  a  very  imperfect  literary 
training  ;  she  has  little  sense  of  the  value  of  words,  and 
is  incompetent  to  express  a  train  of  thought  in  an  orderly 
sequence    of    sentences.      Her    miscellaneous    writings — to 

and  Introspection,  p.  38.  Christian  Scientists  rely  upon  the  judgment 
in  the  Arens  case  as  settling  the  question  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  originality. 
But  that  judgment  has  little  bearing  upon  the  real  question  at  issue. 
Arens,  in  188 1,  after  he  had  become  a  Malicious  Mesmerist,  published 
a  pamphlet  in  which  he  quoted  freely  from  Science  and  Health.  Mrs. 
Eddy  brought  a  writ  for  infringement  of  copyright  and  won.  Arens's 
defence  was  that  Science  and  Health  was  based  upon  Quimby's  MSS. 
But  even  if  Arens  had  been  able  to  produce  the  Quimby  MSS.  in  court 
I  doubt  if  he  would  have  won  his  case.  It  is  probable  that  the  actual 
composition  of  Science  and  Health  was  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  ;  indeed,  as 
will  be  shown  later,  there  are  ideas  in  it  which  she  could  not  have 
borrowed  from  (Juimby.  But  to  admit  so  much  does  not  affect  the 
question  of  her  intellectual  debt  to  Quimby.  That  question  has  never 
been  brought  before  the  courts,  and  never  can  be.  "  Divine 
philosophy"  is  not  a  personal  chattel. 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  287 

leave  Science  and  Health  on  one  side  for  the  moment — are 
characterised  by  extraordinary  vagueness  and  incoherence. 
The  sentences  hang  about  the  meaning  like  ready-made 
clothes.  The  metaphor  is  a  useful  one.  Her  writings,  in 
fact,  seem  to  consist  mainly  of  the  piecing  together  of 
approved  ready-made  phrases,  and  when  a  purple  patch 
comes  to  hand  she  works  it  in,  regardless  of  the  pattern.  A 
good  example  of  her  method  will  be  found  in  Hymn 
No.  161  of  the  Christian  Science  Hymnal,  "Shepherd, 
show  me  how  to  go."  "^  The  writing  of  hymns,  for  one 
who  is  content  to  piece  together  borrowed  phrases  of  con- 
ventional piety,  is  perhaps  the  humblest  of  literary  exercises  ; 
but  Mrs.  Eddy  cannot  even  arrange  her  borrowed  material 
in  intelligible  sequence.  Another  specimen  of  her  unaided 
English,  which  is  incidentally  valuable  for  the  light  thrown 
upon  her  character,  may  be  quoted  at  length. 

It  had  come  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  knowledge  that  some  students, 
instead  of  buying  Science  and  Health  for  themselves,  had 
copied  extracts  from  the  book,  and  read  them  aloud  at  public 
meetings.  Mrs.  Eddy  poured  out  her  indignation  against 
the  practice  in  five  pages  of  circumlocutory  rhetoric.  In  the 
following  passage  she  touches  the  real  gravamen  of  the 
offence  : — 

"  To  the  question  of  my  true-hearted  students,  '  Is  it  right  to  copy 
your  works  and  read  them  for  our  pubUc  Services  ?'  I  answer  :  It  is 
not  right  to  copy  my  book  and  read  it  pubhcly  without  my  consent. 
My  reasons  are  as  follows : — 

First :  This  method  is  an  unseen  form  of  injustice  standing  in  a  holy 
place. 

Second :  It  breaks  the  Golden  Rule — a  Divine  rule  for  human 
conduct. 

Third  :  All  error  tends  to  harden  the  heart,  bhnd  the  eyes,  stop  the 
ears  of  understanding,  and  inflate  self  ;  counter  to  the  commands  of 
our  hillside  Priest,  to  whom  Isaiah  alluded  thus:  'I  have  trodden  the 
winepress  alone  ;  and  of  the  people  there  was  none  with  Me.'  Behind 
the  scenes  lurks  an  evil  which  you  can  prevent ;  it  is  a  purpose  to  kill 
the  reformation    begun   and    increasing  through   the  instruction   of 


'  Also  reprinted  in  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  397,  and  in  PulpU  and 
Press,  p.  25. 


288     MESMERISM    AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures;  it  encourages  infringe- 
ment of  my  copyright,  and  seeks  again  to  '  cast  lots  for  His  vesture  ' — 
while  the  perverter  preserves  in  his  own  consciousness  and  teaching 
the  name  without  the  spirit,  the  skeleton  without  the  heart,  the  form 
without  the  comeliness,  and  the  sense  without  the  Science,  of  Christ's 
healing."' 

All  this  magnificence  of  outraged  morality — five  pages  of 
it ! — because  Mrs.  Eddy  stood  in  danger  of  losing  a  few 
dollars  in  royalties.  From  the  literary  standpoint,  however, 
more  noteworthy  even  than  the  general  looseness  of  thought 
and  expression  is  the  method — a  method  thoroughly  charac- 
teristic of  Mrs.  Eddy — in  which  the  Scripture  texts  are  em- 
ployed. They  do  not,  it  will  be  seen,  illustrate  or  in  any 
way  connect  with  their  surroundings.  They  appear,  in  fact, 
simply  as  expletives,  safety-valves  for  passion  grown  inco- 
herent. Mrs.  Eddy  cannot  relieve  her  feelings  by  saying 
"Confound  your  impudence !  "  so  she  quotes  Isaiah  instead.^ 

But  the  style  o(  Science  and  Health  differs  materially  from 
the  style  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Autobiography,  her  hymns,  and 
other  unedited  writings.  The  book  as  it  appears  in  the 
latest  editions  is,  no  doubt,  the  work  of  many  pens.  The 
whole  work  was  thoroughly  revised  in  1885  by  Mrs.  Eddy's 
then  literary  adviser,  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Wiggin,3  and  has  been 
revised,  it  is  said,  by  others  since.  It  is  now,  whatever 
else  we  may  think  of  it,  a  sound  piece  of  literary  work, 
correct  in  grammar  and  construction,  and  fairly  coherent  in 

•  Miscellaneous  Writings  (39th  edition,  1900),  pp.  301,  302. 

»  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  illustrate  further  the  defects  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  writings  ;  her  hopeless  entanglement  of  metaphors — e.g.,  the 
passage  quoted  by  Mark  Twain,  "  What  plague  spot  or  bacilli  was 
gnawing  at  the  heart  of  this  metropolis  and  bringing  it  on  bended 
knee  "  ;  her  confusion  and  misuse  of  words — "  gnostic  "  and  "  agnostic," 
"adulteration"  and  "adultery,"  "antipode"  as  the  singular  of  "anti- 
podes," &c.,  &c.  Even  as  I  write  this  note  I  come  across  the  following, 
"  Permit  me  to  say  that  your  editorial  is  far  excellence"  {Miscellaneous 
Writings,  p.  313).  Mrs.  Eddy  no  doubt  meant  to  say  that  it  was  an 
excellent  editorial.  The  reader  who  wishes  to  pursue  the  subject  is 
recommended  to  read  Mark  Twain's  Christian  Science. 

3  Powell  {op.  cit.,  p.  226)  tells  us  that  he  has  seen  the  actual  copies  of 
Science  and  Health  used  by  Wiggin  in  his  revision. 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  289 

thought.  The  earliest  editions,  though  in  purely  literary 
qualities  inferior  to  the  editions  subsequent  to  1885,  are  far 
better  than  the  style  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  other  writings  would 
lead  us  to  expect.  But  the  superiority,  so  far  as  the  present 
writer  has  had  the  opportunity  of  observing,  lies  not  so  much 
in  the  grammar  and  construction  of  the  sentences,  which  are 
still  very  faulty,  as  in  the  consecutiveness  of  thought.  From 
the  first,  in  writing  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to 
have  had  something  to  say  and  to  have  succeeded  in  saying 
it.  She  had,  it  may  be  conjectured,  through  years  of  suffer- 
ing and  hardship  won  her  way  to  a  belief  which  she  felt 
entitled  to  call  her  own.  And  what  she  felt  deeply  she 
was  able  to  express  with  more  or  less  clearness.  ^ 

Mrs.  Eddy,  of  course,  claims  that  the  book  was  written 
under  divine  inspiration. 

"  The  works  I  have  written  on  Christian  Science  contain  absolute 
Truth.  ...  I  was  a  scribe  under  orders,  and  who  can  refrain  from 
transcribing  what  God  indites  ? "  " 

Again  : — 

"  I  should  blush  to  write  of  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures as  I  have,  were  it  of  human  origin,  and  I,  apart  from  God,  its 


'  Mark  Twain  (pp.  cit.,  1907,  p.  292)  finds  the  earliest  editions  of 
Science  and  Health  so  far  superior  in  their  literary  qualities  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  writings,  that  he  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  Airs.  Eddy  did  not 
write  the  book  at  all.  I  am  reluctant  to  set  my  opinion  against  that  of 
so  distinguished  a  critic,  especially  as  my  own  opportunities  for  com- 
parison have  been  scanty — the  earliest  edition  I  have  been  able  to 
consult  is  the  third  (1881).  Of  course,  Mrs.  Eddy  received  some  literary 
assistance  at  the  outset,  as  we  know  from  the  action  brought  by  G.  W. 
Barry  ;  and  very  Hkely  there  were  others  who  helped  her.  But  only 
an  exhaustive  literary  analysis,  such  as  has  not  yet  been  attempted, 
could  justify  the  conclusion  that  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health 
was  not,  in  the  main,  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  composition.  For  if  she  stole 
her  gospel  ready-made,  as  Mark  Twain  suggests,  how  can  we  account 
for  her  career  ?  That  she  believes  in  her  divine  mission  it  is  hard  to 
doubt.  Her  belief  in  her  Devil  affords  some  measure  of  the  intensity 
of  her  belief  in  her  God,  and  her  Devil,  at  any  rate,  is  all,  or  nearly  all, 
her  own. 

'  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  311. 
u 


290     MESMERISM   AND  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

author  ;  but  as  I  was  only  a  scribe  echoing  the  harmonies  of  Heaven  in 
divine  metaphysics,  I  cannot  be  super-modest  of  the  Christian  Science 
text-book."  ■ 


We  may  admit  inspiration,  of  the  same  kind  as  has  been 
already  claimed  for  Mrs.  Eddy's  predecessors,  the  Spiritualist 
prophets.  All  literary  composition  seems  to  involve  some 
detrree  of  detachment  from  ordinary  mental  impressions,  and 
all  degrees  of  this  detachment  may  be  found  up  to  the 
extreme  forms  of  psychic  dissociation  in  trance  or  ecstasy. 
VVe  do  not  know  whether  Mrs.  Eddy  actually  passed  into 
a  trance  ;  probably  not.  But  there  seems  no  sufficient  reason 
to  doubt  her  explicit  statement  that  she  was  "inspired."  It 
is  only  the  source  of  the  inspiration  which  we  presume  to 
question.  It  seemed  to  her,  as  she  tells  us,  a  power  not  her 
own  which  impelled  the  pen.  But  the  power  for  all  that 
came  from  within  ;  it  was  her  own  mind  drawing  upon  its 
concealed  stores  which  thought  and  wrote  wiser  than  she 
knew. 

If  we  analyse  her  gospel,  and  especially  the  parts  which 
she  did  not  owe  to  Quimby,  we  shall  find  clear  proof  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  belongs  by  right  to  that  mystical  brotherhood 
of  whom  T.  L.  Harris  was  the  most  conspicuous  example  in 
the  last  generation. 

In  style  and  in  emotional  qualities,  indeed,  the  two  prophets 
have  little  affinity.  The  note  of  the  true  prophet  is  passion. 
Even  the  anaemic  Davis  finds  his  blood  run  warmer  when  he 
contemplates  the  harmony  of  the  heavens,  or  turns  to  look 
below  on  the  sufferings  of  mankind,  entangled  in  the  web  of 
iniquity.  The  secret  of  Madaine  Blavatsky's  influence  lay 
partly  in  her  disinterested  enthusiasm  for  the  finer  elements 
in  the  life  around  her.  Harris's  pages  still  glow,  as  we  have 
seen,  with  pity  and  generous  wrath.  But  Mrs.  Eddy's  accents 
are  cold,  inhuman,  passionless — with  one  exception.  Her 
emotions  are  aroused  only  by  a  more  intimate  appeal  ;  her 
rhetoric  is  poured  out  only  on  those  who  threaten  her  person, 
her  property,  or  her  dignity  :  on  Richard  Kennedy  and  the 

•  Christian  Science  journal,  January,  1901. 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  291 

Malicious  Mesmerists;  on  disciples  who  copy  extracts  from 
her  book  instead  of  buying  it ;  on  the  daring  heretics  who 
claim  rival  inspiration.^  Save  for  these  vivid  outbreaks  of 
personal  feeling  there  are  no  threads  of  scarlet  to  relieve  the 
grey  tissue  of  her  writings.  There  is  no  indignation  against 
the  wrong-doer  who  has  done  no  wrong  to  her.  There  is  no 
pity  for  the  sufferings  of  those  around  her  ;  the  long  tragedy 
of  human  history  leaves  her  unmoved.  Can  we  call  this 
thing  a  gospel,  an  inspiration, 


"Whose  life,  to  its  cold  circle  charmed, 
The  earth's  whole  summers  have  not  warmed  "  ? 


But  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  all  that,  belongs  in  some  sort  to  the 
fellowship  of  the  prophets.  Consider  her  "Science" — is  it 
not  another  name  for  Faith,  and  Faith  of  the  thoroughgoing 
old-fashioned  sort,  expressed  by  the  mediaeval  scholar  in  his 
Credo  quia  impossibile  ?  2  It  is  faith  of  an  heroic  kind  which 
the  New  Gospel  exacts  from  its  devotees.  Further,  Mrs. 
Eddy  is  imbued  with  many  of  the  peculiar  mystical  doctrines. 
Her  whole  gospel  is  based  on  the  Science  of  Corre- 
spondences.3  She  gives  symbolic  interpretations  to  the 
Scriptural  writings,  as  Davis  and  Harris  did,  as,  in  a  word, 
every  mystic  has  done  since  the  days  of  Swedenborg.  Her 
interpretation  differs,  no  doubt,  from  those  of  her  predecessors, 
but  the  principle  is  the  same.  Like  those  who  have  travelled 
the  same  road  before  her,  Mrs.  Eddy  makes  words  mean 
what  she  wants  them  to  mean.  Dariy  according  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  means  Animal  Magnetism  ;  so  do  the  Devil,  the  Red 

»  See  the  denunciation  of  Mrs.  Woodbury  quoted  in  McLure's  Maga- 
zine for  April,  1908,  p.  712.  The  passage  is  made  up  almost  entirely  of 
fragments  of  biblical  phrases,  but  the  whole  is  pieced  together  with 
skill,  and  forms  a  really  magnificent  piece  of  rhetoric. 

'^  Aptly  translated  by  a  modern  schoolboy  as  "Faith  is  believing 
what  you  know  ain't  so." 

3  The  phrase  is  Swedenborg' s,  but  the  idea  of  a  universal  symbolism 
is  common  to  mystics.  It  appears,  e.g.,  in  the  Paracelsian  doctrine  of 
Signature$. 


292     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Dragon,  and  the  Serpent  ^  ;  Elias  means  Christian  Science  ; 
Gad,  Euphrates,  Hiddckcl,  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  New  Jeru- 
salem mean  Divine  Science,  which  is  the  same  thinj^;  Mother 
means  God  ;  Sheep,  "those  who  follow  their  leader"  ;  Adam 
means  a  whole  page — amongst  other  things  red  sandstone  !  ^ 
Of  her  belief  in  witchcraft  enough  has  been  said  in  the 
previous  chapter.  Whatever  good  Mrs;  Eddy  may  have 
done  in  her  day — and  there  can  be  no  question  that  she  has 
brought  healing  and  comfort  to  many  —  there  is  a  heavy 
claim  to  set  on  the  other  side  of  the  account.  She  has 
inspired  her  followers  with  her  own  dread  of  Animal 
Magnetism  ;  she  has  done  what  she  could  to  revive  in  our 
generation  the  panic  fear  which  oppressed  all  Europe  for 
centuries,  which  seems,  indeed,  to  have  oppressed  the  human 
race  from  its  cradle.  Daniel  Spofford's  terror  of  material 
vengeance  was  not,  perhaps,  altogether  unreasonable.  The 
temper  of  those  who  believe  in  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism 
is  the  temper  of  those  who  tortured  and  put  to  the  flame 
thousands  of  friendless  old  women,  and  even  feeble  girls  and 
children,  in  the  name  of  religion  and  humanity.3 

'  Cf.  Davis's  interpretation  of  the  Serpent  as  corresponding  to  "an 
unfavourable  and  unhappy  mental  development." 

'  See  the  Glossary  included  in  the  later  editions  of  Science  and 
Health.  "Red  Sandstone"  seems  absurdly  misplaced  in  a  system  of 
symbolism,  which  deals  with  abstract  or  non-material  conceptions.  It 
is  possible  that  it  may  be  an  unconscious  reminiscence  of  Davis's 
Divine  Revelations,  in  which  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  plays  an  important 
part.  Davis  seems  to  have  drawn  his  inspiration  in  this  particular  from 
Hugh  Miller,  the  Scotch  mason  geologist. 

3  For  some  years  the  Journal  of  Christian  Science  devoted  a  column 
to  the  subject  of  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism,  heading  it  with  the 
text,  "Also  they  have  donainion  over  our  bodies  and  over  our  cattle 
at  their  pleasure,  and  we  are  in  great  distress."  An  illustration  of  the 
effect  of  this  teaching  is  afforded  by  the  tragic  story  of  the  death  of 

little  Edward quoted  in  McLure's  Magazine  for  October,  1907.   The 

unhappy  mother  who  allowed  her  child  to  die  in  her  arms,  believing 
that  the  mental  malpractice  which  was  killing  it  could  be  met  only  by 
mental  resistance,  was  a  loyal  disciple  of  Mrs.  Eddy's.  She  was,  no 
doubt,  familiar  with  her  teacher's  statement,  "  Our  Christian  students 
have  seen  children  thrown  into  fits  by  the  hidden  influence  of  mental 
malpractice,  covered  with  virulent  humours  from  the  same  cause  .  .  . 
and  until  they  destroyed  the  effects  of  this  mesmerism  the  cliildren 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  293 

Most  significant  of  her  mystical  affinities  is  Mrs.  Eddy's 
doctrine  of  celibacy  and  spiritual  generation.  Like  other 
prophets,  she  dislikes  all  merely  human  ties  as  tending  to 
divert  devotion  from  spiritual  things  and  from  the  Teacher  of 
spiritual  things.  It  is  this  feeling,  no  doubt,  which  is  partly 
responsible  for  her  extraordinary  attempt  to  monopolise,  as 
far   as   that   is  humanly   possible,   the   title   of  "  Mother."  ^ 

could  not  be  cured.  But  for  the  skill  of  Christian  Scientists  the 
slaughter  of  innocents  at  this  period  and  by  the  aforesaid  means  would 
gain  more  hideous  proportions  than  it  has  already  done"  {Science  ami 
Health,  1881,  p.  20).  See  also  the  extraordinary  passage  on  p.  38  of  the 
same  volume  on  "the  Nero  of  to-day  regaling  himself  through  a  mental 
method  with  the  torture  of  Christians."  The  chapter  on  Demonology, 
from  which  these  extracts  are  taken,  has  been  withdrawn  from  the 
later  editions  of  the  book.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  remains  of  the  same  opinion 
still,  though  her  utterances  grow  more  guarded  in  these  later  years. 
See  Miscellaneous  PFn7;«^s  (1900),  p.  48.  A  recent  "declaration  as  to 
the  animus  of  Animal  Magnetism  and  the  possible  purpose  to  which  it 
can  be  devoted  has,  we  trust,  been  made  in  season  to  open  the  eyes  of 
the  people  to  the  hidden  nature  of  some  tragic  events  and  sudden 
deaths  at  this  period."  In  the  later  editions  of  Science  and  Health  she 
speaks  in  more  general  terms,  but  not  less  plainly.  "  The  mild  forms 
of  Animal  Magnetism  are  disappearing,  and  its  aggressive  features  are 
coming  to  the  front.  The  looms  of  crime,  hidden  in  the  dark  recesses 
of  mortal  thought,  are  every  hour  weaving  webs  more  complicated  and 
more  subtle  .  .  ."  {Science  and  Health,  1907,  p.  102).  And  again  : 
"  The  march  of  mind  and  of  honest  investigation  will  bring  the  hour 
when  the  people  will  chain,  with  fetters  of  some  sort,  the  growing 
occultism  of  this  period.  The  present  apathy  as  to  the  tendency  of 
certain  active  yet  unseen  mental  agencies  will  finally  be  shocked  into 
another  extreme  mortal  mood — into  human  indignation  "  (/(/.,  p.  570). 
'  Article  xxii.  section  i  of  the  bye-laws  originally  ran  as  follows  : 
"  The  Title  of  Mother.  In  the  year  1895  loyal  Christian  Scientists  had 
given  to  the  author  of  their  text-book,  the  Founder  of  Christian  Science, 
the  individual  and  endearing  term  of  Mother.  Therefore,  if  a  student 
of  Christian  Science  shall  apply  the  title,  either  to  herself  or  to  others, 
except  as  the  term  for  kinship  according  to  the  flesh,  it  shall  be  regarded 
by  the  Church  as  an  indication  of  disrespect  for  their  Pastor  Emeritus, 
and  unfitness  to  be  a  member  of  the  Mother  Church. "  In  more  recent 
editions  of  the  Church  Manual  Christian  Scientists  are  instructed  that  it 
is  their  duty  to  drop  the  word  "  Mother  "  and  to  substitute  "  Leader." 
This  is  only  one  of  many  instances  in  which  bye-laws  which  had  been 
unfavourably  commented  on  by  Mark  Twain  and  others  have  been 
dropped  or  modified,  notwithstanding  the  original  inspiration  claimed 
for  them. 


294     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

Even  friendship  is  a  serious  snare  ;  she  calls  it  "  the  great 
and  only  danger  in  the  path  that  winds  upwards." »  But 
of  all  forms  of  human  relationship  marriage  is  the  most 
dangerous  to  the  prophetic  supremacy.  Mrs.  Eddy  had,  no 
doubt,  been  familiar  from  her  childhood  with  the  idea  of 
religious  celibacy.  The  Shakers  had  several  Settlements  in 
New  England,  one  only  a  few  miles  from  Tilton,  where  much 
of  Mary  Baker's  youth  was  passed.  Other  celibate  sects 
had  emigrated  from  the  Continent  of  Europe  during  the 
eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries,  and  settled  in 
various  parts  of  the  United  States.  As  Mrs.  Patterson,  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  taken  part  in  the  early  Spiritualist  movement,  in 
which  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  sexes  was  freely 
canvassed,  and  many  strange  solutions  proposed.  It  is,  how- 
ever, to  Thomas  Lake  Harris  that  we  must  turn  for  the 
nearest  counterpart  to  her  special  teaching  on  the  relation  of 
the  sexes.  Like  Harris,  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  forbid  her 
disciples  to  marry,  but  she  regards  celibacy  as  preferable.^ 
In  the  chapter  on  "Marriage"  in  Science  and  Health  she  deals 
with  it  primarily  in  its  bearings  upon  the  welfare  of  the 
husband  and  wife,  as  a  more  intimate  form  of  friendship, 
having  as  its  object  "to  happify  existence."  In  the  article 
on  "Wedlock"  in  XhQ  Afisccllaneous  Writings — an  authentic 
and  unedited  utterance  on  the  subject — she  remembers  the 
children  only  to  suggest  that  tb.cy  would  be  better  unborn  : 
"  Human  nature  has  bestowed  on  a  wife  the  right  to  become 
a  mother;  but  if  the  wife  esteems  not  the  privilege,  by 
mutual  consent,  exalted  and  increased  affections,  she  may 
win  a  higher."  3 

In  short,  Mrs.  Eddy,  like  the  Seer  of  Brocton,  regards 
marriage  after  the  flesh  only  as  a  concession  to  unregenerate 
human  nature.  "  Until  the  spiritual  creation  is  discerned  and 
the  union  of  male  and  female  apprehended  in  its  soul  sense, 

'  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  9. 

»  "Is  marriage  more  right  than  celibacy?  Human  knowledge  indi- 
cates that  it  is,  while  Science  indicates  that  it  is  not "  {Miscellaneous 
Writings,  p.  288). 

»  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  289. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  295 

this  rite  [marriage]  should  continue."  ^  But  even  now  marriage 
is  not  necessary  for  the  continuation  of  the  species.  *'  To 
aboHsh  marriage  at  this  period,  and  maintain  morah'ty  and 
generation,  would  put  ingenuity  to  ludicrous  shifts,  yet  it  is 
possible  in  Science,  although  it  is  to-day  problematic."  2 

Is  Mrs,  Eddy,  then,  an  advocate  of  Free  Love  ?  By  no 
means.  She  merely  wishes  to  indicate  that  reproduction  is 
essentially  asexual.  "  Until  it  is  learned  that  generation 
rests  on  no  sexual  basis,  let  marriage  continue."  3  In  another 
passage  she  indicates  her  meaning  yet  more  plainly. 

"  The  propagation  of  their  species  by  butterfly,  bee,  and  moth,  with- 
out the  customary  presence  of  male  companions,  is  a  discovery  cor- 
roborative of  the  Science  of  Mind,  because  these  discoveries  show  that 
the  origin  and  continuance  of  certain  insects  rests  on  a  principle  apart 
from  sexual  conditions.  The  supposition  that  life  germinates  in  eggs 
...  is  shown  by  divine  metaphysics  to  be  a  mistake."  ♦ 

It  should  be  added  that  one  at  least  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
disciples  believed  that  she  meant  what  she  said.  In  June, 
1890,  Mrs.  Woodbury  gave  birth  to  a  son,  whom  she  pro- 
claimed, Mr.  Woodbury  not  dissenting,  to  have  been  con- 
ceived by  mental  generation  in  accordance  with  the  doctrine 
of  Christian  Science.s 

'  Science  and  Health,  vol.  ii.  p.  152  (1881).  The  passage  has  been 
materially  modified  in  later  editions. 

»  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  286. 

3  Science  and  Healtli,  p.  274  (1897).  In  the  1907  edition  (p.  64)  the 
passage  runs,  "  Until  it  is  learnt  that  God  is  the  Father  of  all,  marriage 
will  continue." 

*  Science  and  Healtli  (1891),  p.  529.  According  to  Powell  {op.  cit., 
p.  251),  this  reference  to  butterfly  and  bee  appears  in  all  editions  up  to 
and  including  that  of  1906.  It  does  not  appear  in  the  1907  edition, 
which  contains  instead  a  statement  by  Mrs.  Eddy  that  she  does  not 
beheve  in  agamogenesis,  and  that  the  only  person  of  her  acquaintance 
who  ever  did  believe  in  it  was  insane  (p.  68).  But  what  then  is  the 
meaning  of  the  four  passages  quoted  in  the  text  ?  Litem  scripta  manet. 
Even  in  the  1907  edition  Mrs.  Eddy  harps  upon  this  same  idea  of 
asexual  generation  amongst  the  lower  animals  (see  pp.  548-554). 

5  For  an  account  of  this  immaculate  conception  and  the  "  war  in 
Heaven  "  which  resulted  between  Mrs.  Woodbury  and  Mrs.  Eddy,  sec. 
McLure's  Magazine  for  April,  1908. 


296     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 

Like  disease,  Death  itself  is  only  a  delusion,  and  can  be 
overcome  by  "  Science."  Doctors,  by  the  poison  of  their  belief, 
have,  it  is  true,  succeeded  in  seriously  shortening  the  span  of 
human  existence,  as  we  can  see  by  the  lives  of  the  antedilu- 
vians, who  had  no  doctors.'     But  there  is  hope. 

"  In  1867  I  taught  the  first  student  in  Christian  Science.  Since  that 
date  I  have  known  of  but  fourteen  dcatlis  in  the  ranks  of  my  about  five 
tliousand  students.  Tlic  census  since  1875  (the  date  of  the  first  puhUca- 
tion  of  my  work,  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures)  shous 
that  longevity  has  increased."  ' 

We  are  reminded  of  the  boast  of  Thomas  Lake  Harris,  that 
amongst  his  disciples  "  two  things  decrease — the  propagation 
of  the  species  and  physical  death."  On  Mrs.  Eddy  herself, 
we  may  conjecture,  the  "  belief "  in  death  is  losing  its  hold. 
Already  she  is  proof  against  poison. 3  But  she  has  not  yet 
openly  claimed,  like  her  predecessor,  to  have  put  on  her 
resurrection  body. 

The  idea  of  God  as  both  masculine  and  feminine  is  found 
generally  amongst  the  latter-day  mystics.  But  in  Mrs.  Eddy 
it  reaches  its  supreme  expression.  God,  according  to 
Christian  Science,  is  more  feminine  than  masculine.4  As  we 
have  already  seen,  the  Glossary  defines  Mother  as  meaning 
"God."  In  Mrs.  Eddy's  latest  revision  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
for  "  Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven  "  we  are  bidden  to  say 
"Our  Father-Mother  God,  All-harmonious."  5  And,  finally, 
we  have  a  new  version  of  the  Trinity:  "This  rule  clearly 
interprets  God  as  Divine  Principle — as  Life,  represented  by 
the  Father ;  as  Truth,  represented  by  the  Son  ;  as  Love, 
represented  by  the  Mother."  ^ 

With  Thomas  Lake  Harris    the  ascription  of  a  feminine 

'  Science  and  Health  (1907),  p.  8.        '  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  29. 
3  Christian  Science  "Journal,  April,  1885,  quoted  in  McLure's  Magazine, 
October,  1907. 

♦  Science  and  Health,  p.  517.  '  Id.,  p.  16. 

*  Id.,  p.  569.  The  word  "  rule  "  affords  another  illustration  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  loose  and  inconsequent  writing.  The  previous  paragraph  ends 
"Self-abnegation  ...  is  a  rule  in  Christian  Science."  But  the  present 
writer  has  not  succeeded  in  tracing  any  connection  between  this  and 
the  passage  quoted  in  the  text. 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  297 

nature  to  God  was  the  outcome  of  genuine  chivalry.  What 
is  the  inspiring  motive  in  the  case  of  the  later  prophetess  the 
reader  may  discover  for  himself.  Woman,  Mrs.  Eddy 
reminds  us,  was  the  first  to  confess  her  fault  in  eating  the 
apple.  "This  enabled  woman  to  be  first  to  interpret  the 
Scriptures  in  their  true  sense."  ^  In  the  interpretation  of  the 
Apocalypse  the  exaltation  of  woman  is  carried  a  little  further. 
"  And  I  saw  another  mighty  angel  come  down  from  Heaven 
.  .  .  and  he  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book  open."  2  "  Did  this 
same  book,"  asks  Mrs.  Eddy,  "  contain  the  revelation  of 
Divine  Science  ?  "  3 

On  the  next  page  another  text  is  quoted,  "  And  there 
appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven  ;  a  woman  clothed  with 
the  sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her  head  a 
crown  of  twelve  stars."  4  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  identify  the 
woman  with  an)'body  in  particular ;  she  quotes  the  text, 
points  out  that  "  in  the  opening  of  the  sixth  seal,  typical  of 
six  thousand  years  since  Adam,  the  distinctive  feature  has 
reference  to  the  present  age,"  and  leaves  the  rest  to  her 
followers.  The  language  of  Science  and  Health  on  such 
personal  topics  is  generally  guarded  ;  but  when  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  no  editor  to  hold  her  in  check  she  lets  herself  go.  Con- 
sider these  two  passages  from  her  recent  Autobiography  : 
"  No  one  else  can  drain  the  cup  which  I  have  drunk  to  the 
dregs  as  the  discoverer  and  teacher  of  Christian  Science." 

"  No  person  can  take  the  individual  place  of  the  Virgin 
Mary.  No  person  can  compass  or  fulfil  the  individual  mission 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  No  person  can  take  the  place  of  the 
author  of  Science  and  Health,  the  discoverer  and  founder  of 
Christian  Science.  Each  individual  must  fill  his  own  niche 
in  time  and  eternity. 

"  The  second  appearance  of  Jesus  is  unquestionably  the 
spiritual  advent  of  the  advancing  idea  of  God  as  in  Christian 
Science."  5 

*  Science  and  Health,  pp.  533,  534.  »  Revelation  x.  i,  2. 

*  Science  and  Health,  p.  559.  *  Revelation  xii.  i. 
s  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  pp.  47  and  96. 


298    MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 
In  Christ  and  Christmas  occurs  the  stanza — 

**As  in  blest  Palestina's  hour, 
So  in  our  age, 
'Tis  the  same  hand  unfolds  His  power, 
And  writes  the  page." 

On  the  opposite  page  is  a  picture  of  Christ  seated,  holding 
by  the  hand  a  woman  whose  features  bear  an  unmistakable 
resemblance  to  those  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  This  woman  holds  out 
a  scroll  inscribed  "  Christian  Science."  ' 

Loyal  Scientists  have  not  been  slow  to  act  on  the  hints 
supplied  to  them  by  Mrs.  Eddy.  Let  one  extract  suffice. 
A  lady  who  had  been  on  one  of  the  pilgrimages  to  Concord, 
and  had  been  privileged  to  have  a  momentary  view  of  the 
Pastor  Emeritus,  writes  thus  of  her  feelings  : — 

"  I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  Leader,  nor  can  I  say 
what  this  brief  glimpse  was  and  is  to  me.  I  can  only  say  I 
wept,  and  the  tears  start  every  time  I  think  of  it.  Why  do 
I  weep?  I  think  it  is  because  I  want  to  be  like  her,  and 
they  are  tears  of  repentance.  I  realise  better  now  what  it 
was  that  made  Mary  Magdalene  weep  when  she  came  into 
the  presence  of  the  Nazarene."  ^ 

The  comparison  which  is  here  hinted  has  been  deliberately 

•  Chrhl  and  Chrislmas,  an  illustrated  poem  by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy. 
The  poem  first  appeared  in  1893,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  was  forced  by  the 
public  outcry  to  realise  that  she  had  gone  too  far,  and  the  book  was 
withdrawn  after  it  had  gone  into  a  second  edition.  See  her  explana- 
tion for  the  reason  of  the  withdrawal  {Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  307). 
The  poem  is  now  republished,  but  it  is  still  apparently  regarded  as 
too  strong  meat  for  babes.  It  is  not  placed  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  other 
writings  on  the  table  of  the  Reading  Room  at  Sloane  Terrace,  but  is 
kept  under  lock  and  key.  The  neopiiyte  may  admire  the  outer  cover 
in  a  glass  case,  or  may  spend  12s.  6d.  in  buying  it. 

In  the  Miscellaneous  Writings  (p.  3)  Mrs.  Eddy  writes  :  "  We  "  (royal  or 
editorial  plural)  "  shall  claim  no  especial  gift  from  our  divine  origin." 
This  ought  to  mean  that  the  writer  regards  herself  as  of  divine  origin, 
but  it  is  possibly  only  another  illustration  of  her  inability  to  write 
English. 

'  Christian  Science  journal  for  June,  1899,  quoted  in  McLure's 
Magazine,  May,  1908. 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  299 

emphasised  by  more  outspoken  disciples.^  Forty  years  ago 
Mrs,  Eddy  is  reported  to  have  said  to  Richard  Kennedy  that 
she  should  yet  Hve  to  hear  the  church  bells  ring  out  her 
birthday.  That  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled,  and  the  Church 
was  of  her  own  foundation.  How  many  years  shall  pass 
away  before  the  same  church  bells  shall  summon  loyal 
Christian  Scientists  all  the  world  over  to  the  worship  of 
a  new  Saint — or  a  new  Deity? 

'  See  the  quotations  on  the  subject  from  the  Christian  Science  Journal 
given  in  McLure's  Magazine,  February,  1908,  pp.  388,  389. 


INDEX 


Absent  treatment,  257 

Academy  of  Medicine  in  Paris,  Mes- 

mer's  relations  with,  43-46,  50,  51  ; 

their  Report  on  Animal  Magnetism 

in  1784,  59-60  ;  later  Commission 

appointed  by,  103-21 
Adare,  Lord,  178 
Anaesthesia   induced  by  suggestion, 

69,  89,  90,  93,  107,  110-15, 128,  134- 

40, 144 
Animal  Electricity,  80-82 
Animal   Magnetism,   analogies   with 

Mineral  Magnetism,  I,  2,  37-39 
Arcana  of  Christianity,  The,  236,  242- 

43 
Arens,  271,  286  n. 
Atkinson,  H.  G.,  149 

Bailly,  his  acquaintance  with  Mes- 

mer,  46 
Bailly's  Commission,  8-10,  55-59 
Baker,  Albert,  brother  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 

264, 267 
Baker,    Mary  A.    Morse,  see  Eddy, 

Mrs. 
Baqiiet,  description  of,  6 
Bell,  Dr.,  122,  123 
Bennett,  Dr.  Hughes,  129,  147,  149 
Berna,  Dr.,  113,  114 
Berthollet  on  Mesmer's  doctrine,  55 
Bertrand,    Alexander,     87-102,    103, 

106-7,  153,  170,  192 
Bleeding  caused   by  suggestion,  97, 

98 
Blindness,  see  Eyes,  affections  of 
Braid,  James,  92,    137,  139,  142-43, 

146-48,  151,  153,  155,  159-61,  162, 

163,  164,  249 
Bramwell,  J.  M.,  Dr.,  97 


Branch  Churches  of  Christ  Scientist, 

277 
Brewster,  Sir  David,  147,  149 
Brisbane,  Albert,  227 
British   Medical  Association,  Report 

on  Hypnotism,  151-52 
Bernheim,  Professor,  92,  151 
Brocton  Community,  236-37 
Brodie,  Sir  B.,  125 
Brotherhood  of  the  New  Life,  236 
Buckley,  Major,  171 
Burdin  Commission  on  Clairvoyance 

see  Commission 
Burns  healed,  13,  20 
Bush,  Professor,  227,  228,  230 
Busson,  Dr.,  cured  of  nasal  polypus 

by  Mesmer,  49 

Cagliostro,  5,  85 

Cahagnet,  A.,  191,  200-4,  219,  220 

Carpenter,  Dr.,  147,  149,  175  n.,  176 

Catalepsy  observed  by  Petetin,  80 

Celibacy,  see  Marriage 

Celine,  Mdlle.,  105,  107,  108,  112 

Chapman,  John,  228 

Charcot,  151 

Chenevix,  R.,  F.R.S.,  124-25 

Children  cured  by  Mesmer's  treat- 
ment, 11-14 

Chloroform,  discovery  of,  147 

Christ  distinguished  from  Jesus  by 
Quimby,  254  ;  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  285  ; 
Christ  and  Christinas,  an  illustrated 
poem  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  298 

Chri^ian  Science,  the  title  due  to 
Quimby,  254  ;  Association  founded, 
272  ;  organisation  of  Church,  273- 
75  ;  Healers,  277  ;  in  Great  Britain, 
277  n. 


302     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


Clairvoyance,  90,  91,  93,  98,  loi,  102, 
107,  108,  129,  145, 168-91,  195,  196 ; 
Burdin  Commission  on,  see  Com- 
mission 

Clairvoyants,  professional,  87,  115- 
21,  150,  171-84,  199 

Cloquet,  collector  of  taxes,  descrip- 
tion of  Puysegur's  treatment,  75, 
76 

Cloquet,  surgeon,  on  a  case  of 
anaesthesia,  110,  154 

Colquhoun,  J.  C,  author  of  Isis 
Revclala,  125 

Commission  on  Animal  Magnetism 
of  1784,  8-10,  55-59  ;  of  1826, 
105-9 ;  (Burdin)  on  Clairvoyance, 
115-21,  170 

Community  of  Sensation,  169,  170 

Concord,  Mrs.  Eddy's  retirement  at, 
242 

Costello,  Dr.,  on  the  clairvoyance  of 
Alexis  Didier,  182 

Crises,  Salle  aux,  7 

Crisis,  The,  7,  6(),  70,  7 1-  95 

Croycz  et  veuillcz,  the  secret  of 
Animal  Magnetism,  77 

Cures  effected  by  Animal  Magnetism, 
8,  9-23.  49,  72-73  ;  hy  HypncitiMn, 
146 ;  Mental-healing,  260-61  ; 
Christian  Science,  278-81 

Davis,  Andrew  Jackson,  220-33,  see 
also  Eddy,  Mrs. 

Dawson,  Ellen,  clairvoyance  of,  186, 
187 

Death,  Mrs.  Eddy's  views  on,  296  ; 
T.  L.  Harris's  views  on,  241 

Deleuzc,  4,  54,  82-85,  98,  193,  194, 
196 

Demonology,  Mrs.  Eddy  on,  270 

De  Morgan,  Professor,  on  clairvoy- 
ance, 186 

Deslon,  Dr.  C,  5,  7,  8,  10,  24,  46,  47- 
51 ;  his  cures  compared  with  Chris- 
tian Science  cures,  281 

Despines,  8,  loi  n.,  115 

Diagnosis  of  diseases  in  somnambu- 
lism, 73-75,  88,  99,  100,  107 

Didier,  Alexis,  172-83  ;  Adolphe,  183 

Digby,  Kenelm,  28-29,  33 


Disease,  A.  J.  Davis's  view  of,  231-32  ; 
Quimby's  view  of,  251,  254  ;  Mrs. 
Eddy's  view  of,  283,  284 

Distance,  influence  at,  34,  36,  80,  89, 
107,  132,  165-^57,  206-7,  258-59, 
see  also  Thought-transference 

Double,  M.,  105,  116,  117 

Doutes  d'uti  Proi-iitciiil,  66-67 

Dresser,  Horatio  W.,  256-59,  279  ; 
Julius,  266,  267  ;  Mrs.  Julius,  250  n., 
251,  256,  265 

Dubois,  joint  author  of  Hisloire 
Acaddviiquc,  109,  II2,  I13 

Ducie,  Earl  of,  141-42, 186 

Dupotet,  88,  89,  105,  126 

Durand,  Dr.,  cured  by  Animal  Magne- 
tism, 16 


Ecstasy,  religious,  its  analogies  with 
somnambulism,  92,  03,  106 

Eddy,  A.  G.,  Mrs.  Eddy's  third  hus- 
band, 268,  271 

Eddy,  Mrs.,  220,  262-99  1  her  testi- 
mony to  Quimby,  252,  253  ; 
her  system  mainly  derived  from 
Quimby,  285-S6  ;  comparison  of 
her  system  with  that  of  T.  L. 
Harris,  290,  294,  297  ;  parallels 
between  her  childhood  and  that  of 
A.  J.  Davis,  263 

Electricity,  Animal,  80-82 

Electro-biology,  148-49 

Elliotson,  Dr.,  125,  126-34,  146,  147, 
149,  150,  153,  169,  184 

England,  its  neglect  of  Animal 
Magnetism,  88,  122,  126 

Esdaile,  James,  137-40,  154,  156,  162, 
165 

Evans,  Rev.  W.  F.,  a  pupil  of 
Quimby,  255 

Eyes,  affections  of,  cured  or  alleviated, 
3,  8,  20,  47,  61,  146,  281 


Faculty  of  Medicine  (Paris),  Mes- 

mer's  relations  with,  47-52 
Faith-healers,  Mesmer's  debt  to,  27 
Faraday,  Professor,  125 
Faria,  Abbe,  87,  92  n,  124,  192 
Fludd,  R.,26,  34,  35,  40 


INDEX 


303 


Fluid,  Animal  Magnetic,  discovery 
of,  2  ;  persistent  belief  in,  23  ; 
supposed  physical  effects  of,  23-24, 
see  also  Physical  effects,  supposed. 

Foissac,  Dr.,  103,  105,  112 

Forbes,  Sir  John,  on  mesmeric 
clairvoyance,  171,  172,  175,  176, 
184 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  42,  55,  58 


Gassner,  J.  J.,  24,  27,  192 
Gebelin,  Court  de,  68,  122 
Georget,  90,  91,  94 
Gerdy,  Professor,  119,  120 
Germany,     Animal     Magnetism    in, 

205-17 
Glover,   G.    W.,   Mrs.    Eddy's    first 

husband,     264 ;    son,     his     action 

against  Mrs.  Eddy,  274  n. 
Goble,  George,   fraudulent  clairvoy- 
ant, 171 
Goclenius,  his    controversy  on    the 

Sympathetic  System,  31 
God    as    masculine     and    feminine, 

Mrs.    Eddy's   views    on,  296 ;   T. 

L.    Harris's  views  on,  240 
Goddard,  Dr.  H.,  on  Mental-healing, 

260  ;  on  Christian   Science  cures, 

279 
Greatrakes,  Valentine,  24,  27 
Gregory,  Professor,   156  n.,  159,  162, 

185,  186,  189,  190,  191 
Grimes,  Professor,  222 


Haddock,  Dr.,  165,  187,    188,  191, 

220 
Hamard,  Dr.,  109,  11 1 
Harmony,    Societies  of,  53,  70,  85, 

see  also  Strasburg. 
Harris,  Thomas  Lake,  227,  232,  234- 

48,  see  also  Eddy,  Mrs. 
Healing  of  the  Nations,  The,  247 
Hell,  Father,  i 
Hospitals    of     Paris     and     Animal 

Magnetism,  88,  103,  105 
Houdin,   Robert,  and  Alexis  Didier, 

173-75-  i8i,  183 
Hourry,     Dr.,     cured     by     Animal 

Magnetism,  15 


Hublier,  Dr.,  and  his  pseudo- 
clairvoyant,  Emelie,  120-21 

Husson,  chief  of  staff  at  the  Hotel 
Dicu,  88,  89,  103,  108,  114 

Hyperaesthesia  in  somnambulism 
128,  155,  177,  190 

Hypnotism,  the  name  proposed  by 
Braid,  143  ;  recognised  in  1893  by 
British  Medical  Association,  151-52 


India,  Mesmerism  in,  137-40 

Inner  Breathing,  240,  241 

Inspiration  claimed  by  A.  J.  Davis, 
224,  231  ;  T.  L.  Harris,  236,  244, 
247  ;  followers  of  the  New 
Thought,  259-60  ;  Mrs.  Eddy 
289-90  ;  others,  235,  247,  248 

Instinct  for  remedies,  93,  99 

Isis  Revelata,  126 

James,  Professor  William,  on  the 
New  Thought  Movement,  259  n., 
286 

Janet,  Professor  Pierre,  88,  166,  167, 
168 

Jastrow,  Professor,  171 

Joly,  H.  J.  C,  patient  of  Puysegur, 
73-74,  94,  97 

Journal  of  Christian  Science  founded, 
272 

Julie,  Strombeck's  somnambule,  208- 
13 

Jumelin,  58,  75 

Jung-Stilling,  215 

Jussieu,  de,  his  observation  of  som- 
nambulism, 59,  60,  70,  75,  164 

Kelvin,  Lord,  on  Magnetism,  162 
Kennedy,  Richard,  268-70,  299 
Kerner,  Justinus,  214-17,  220 
Kieser,  205,  216 
Kluge,  206,  216 

Lafayette,  a  pupil  of  Mesmer,  54 

Lafontaine,  142 

Lancet,  The,  on  Mesmerism,  127,  129, 

132,  133, 137,  143  n. 
Lavoisier,  42,  55 


304     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


Lawsuits,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  268-70 
Lectures,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  268,  273 
Lee,    Dr.,  on   Alexis   Didier,  176  n., 

178-83 
Leroy,    his  relations  with   Mesmer, 

42,  55 
Liebeault,  121,  151,  249 
Linton,  Charles,  247 
Llewellyn,      Colonel,      and      Alexis 

Didier,  178 
Lord  the  Two  in  One,  The,  by  T.  L, 

Harris,  242-43 
Lyon,  Dr.,  224 
Lyric  of  the  Morning  Land,  The,  by 

T.  L.  Harris,  236,  244-47 


Maginot,    Adele,    Cahagnet's    som- 

namhule,  201-4 
Magncs  microscosmi,  30 
Mngnines,    Dr.,    cured     by    Animal 

Magnetism,    15 
Mahan,  J.  T.,  248 
Mainauduc,  de,  123 
Malicious   Animal    Magnetism,    258, 

269-72,  285  n.,  291,  292,  293  n. 
Marie  Antoinette,    Mesmer's    corre- 
spondence with,  52,  53 
Marriage,  A.    J.    Davis's    views   on, 

232  ;  T.  L.  Harris's,  24I-42  ;  Mrs. 

Eddy's,  293-96 
Marshall     Hall,    Dr.,    on    mesmeric 

ansesthesia,  135-37 
Martineau,  Harriet,  149,  184 
"  Masollam,"    a    portrait    of    T.    L. 

Harris,  241  n. 
Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College, 

272 
Maxwell,  26,  35-40 
McLure's  Magazine  on   Mrs.   Eddy, 

262  n. 
Medical  Gazette  on  Mesmerism,  141, 

142 
Medical   Times  on  Mesmerism,   162, 

182 
Medico  -  Chirurgical        Society       of 

London  and  Mesmeric  anaesthesia, 

135-37 
Members      of      Christian       Science 

Church,  277 


Mental-]ie:iling,  249-61 

Mesmcr,  his  birthplace,  I  ;  his 
Propositions,  38,  39  ;  refuses  pen- 
sion from  French  Government, 
52  ;  comparison  with  Mrs.  Eddy, 
269 

"  Metaphysician,"  i.e..  Mental-healer, 
257 

Michaud,  Surgeon,  cured  by  Animal 
Magnetism,  16 

Mind  identified  by  Quimby  with 
matter,  254 

Montravel.  T.iidy  de,  78,  79,  91,  92, 
192.  193,   ii)>.) 

Moral  dangers  uf  Animal  Magnetism, 

59.  «05 
Morniii!^  Post,  The,  on  intolerance  of 

medical  profes>it)n,  142 
"  Mortal  Mind,"  283 
MiHintain  Cove  community,  235 
Miiller,  .-\uguste,    Dr.    Meier's    som- 

iiambule,  213 
Mummy  in  Sympathetic  Medicine,  30, 

32 
Myers,  F.  VV.  H.,  190 


n  rays,  163  n. 

Nassf,  205,  216 

Nathan,  Kcleph  Ben,  199 

S'ature's  Divine  Revelations,  224-31, 
240 

Neurypnology,  Braid's  first  work,  143 

New  Thought,  The,  see  Mental- 
healing. 

North  British  Review  on  Reichen- 
bach's  phenomena,  161 

Observations     sur     le     Magnitisme 

Animal,  by  Deslon,  8 
Odyle,  161,  168 
Okey  sisters,  126-34,  154 
Oliphant,  Laurence,  237-39,  240 
Oudet,  no,  III,  113 


Pains  increased  by  Animal  Magnet- 
ism, 24,  84,  95  ;  in  Gassner's  treat- 
ment, 27 

Paracelsus,  29, 30 


INDEX 


305 


Paradis,  Mdlle.  de,  cured  of  blindness 
by  Mesmer,  3,  4 

Paris,  Deacon,  27,  93 

Patillon,  Dr.,  records  cures  by  Animal 
Magnetism,  14-15 

Patterson,  Daniel,  Mrs,  Eddy's 
second  husband,  264,  265 

Perkins's  metallic  tractors,  124 

Petetin,  Dr.,  80-82,  85,  194 

Petriconi,  de,  on  clairvoyance,  200 

Phrenology,  149 

Phreno-Magnet,  The,  143 

Phreno-Mesmerism,  Braid's  experi- 
ments in,  164 

Physical  effects  of  magnetic  fluid, 
supposed,  43,  56,  78,  91,  144 

Pigeaire,  Mdlle.,  1 16-19 

Pinorel,  Dr.,  cured  by  Animal  Magnet- 
ism, 16 

Plantin,  Madame,  no,  112,  135 

Poltergeist,  215 

Post-hypnotic  promise,  102 

Poughkeepsie,  the  home  of  A.  J. 
Davis,  222 

Powder  of  sympathy,  28 

Powell,  Rev.  L.  P.,  on  Mrs.  Eddy, 
262  n.,  288  n.,  295  n. 

Power  of  the  Mind  over  the  Body,  by 
Braid,  162 

Poyen,  Charles,  219,  250 

Prediction  of  illness  m  somnambulic 
state,  73,  74,  93, 95-98, 107, 108, 115, 
194,  210,  212 

Prevision,  see  above 

Prevorst,  Seeress  of,  214-17 

Propositions,  Mesmer's,  38-39 

Prudence,  Mdlle.,  a  pseudo-clair- 
voyant, 120 

Psychical  Research,  Society  for, 
120  n.,  168,  181,  207 

Pujol,  69 

Puysegur,  Marquis  de,  70,  71-80,  94, 
95,  96,  104,  122,  123,  193,  195 

QuiMBY,  P.  P.,  250-56,  265,  266 

Rapport,  78,  79,  107 
Recamier,  90,  104 

Keflex  movements  in  Mesmeric 
anaesthesia,  135,  137,  139,  144 


Reichenbach's  phenomena,  144,  154, 

156-60,  169 
Retrospection  and  Introspection,  Mrs. 

Eddy's   autobiography,    263,    264, 

274  n. 
Revolution,  the  French,  its  effects  on 

the  study  of  Animal  Magnetism,  85, 

86 
Romer,  Friiulein,  213 
Ross,  Anne,  130,  131,  135,  154 
Rostan,  Professor,  90,  91 
Royal     Society     of     Medicine,     see 

Academy  of  Medicine 


St.  Germain,  Count,  5 
Samson,  Mdlle.,  88,  89,  107 
Santa  Rosa  Community,  237,  239 
"  Science,"  Mrs.  Eddy's  use  of,  284, 

291 
Science  and  Health,  268,  273,  276,  281, 

287 
Secret  of  Mesmer's  treatment,  53 
Segrettier  on  clairvoyance,  195 
Servan,  author  of  Doutes  d'un   Pro- 
vincial, 66 
Sidgwick,  Mrs.  H.,  170 
Signatures,  doctrine  of,  30 
Somnambulism,    induced,    first    ob- 
served by  de  Jussieu,  70  ;  discovery 
of,  by  Puysegur,  72  ;  principal  cha- 
racteristics described  by  Bertrand, 
93 
Spirit  communications,  197-99,  204, 

208-17,  267 
Spiritualism    and    Mesmerism,    150, 
152  ;  Mrs.  Eddy's  connection  with, 
267 
Spofford,  Daniel,  269-71,  292 
Stars,  influence  of,  i,  33,  35,  36,  39 
Stewart,  Dr.  Duncan,  and  Esdaile,l40 
Stockholm,     Societe      exegetique     et 

philanlhropiquc,  197-98 
Strasburg,  Society  of  Harmony,  71, 

77,  195,  197 
Strombeck,    Baron    von,  and  JuUe, 

208-13,  220 
Suggestion  as  explanation  of  Animal 
Magnetism  advanced  by  Bertrand, 
91  ;  definition  of,  by  William  James, 
250 


3o6     MESMERISM   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


Swedi,nb(;rg,  197-98,  223,   229,   230, 

233,  236,  255 
Symbolic  interpretation  of  the  Bible, 

by  A.  J.  Davis,  22O  ;  T.  L.   Harris, 

240  ;  Mrs.  Eddy,  291,  292 
Sympathetic  System,  26-40,  258 
Sympathy,  powder  of,  28 

Telepathy,  see  Thought-transfer- 
ence 

Teste,  Dr.,  117 

Testimony  meetings  in  Christian 
Science  Church,  280 

Thompson,  W.  H.  Stafford,  experi- 
ments in  silent  willing,  165 

Thought-transference,  93,  100,  lot, 
165,  168,  187,  iHH,  193,  207,  251 

Thouret,  39  n.,  67,  69 

Topham,  W.,  135,  185 

Townshend,  Rev.  C.  H.,  165-66,  172, 
182,  183,  190 

Transference  of  sensation,  79,  81-82, 
101,  114,  i6<;,  194 

Tree  used  by  Puysegur  as  Baquet,  76 

Trine,  R.  W.,  256,  259 

Tumours  cured  by  Animal  Magnet- 
ism, 8,  20 

Twain,  Mark,  on  Mrs.  Eddy,  288  n., 
28911. 

Vampires,  mental,  259 
Van  Helmont,  31-35 


Vauzesmes,  de,  48-50 

Verrall,  Mrs.,  171,  174  n. 

Vestiges  of  Creation,  229 

Victor,  Fuysegur's  first  somnambulc, 

72,  77.  96 
Vienna,  Mesmer's  residence  in,  3 

Wakley,  T.,  Editor  of  Lancet,  132, 

133.  154.   155 

Ware,  Miss  E.  G.,  on  Quimby,  252 

Weapon  salve,  31,  32 

Weinholt,  206,  216 

Werner,  Heinrich,  213,  214 

Wesermann,  206-207 

Wiggin,  Rev.  J.  H.,  285,  288 

Wilkinson,  Dr.  Garth,  240 

Will,  power  of,  in  the  Sympathetic 
System,  34,  36,  39 ;  in  Animal 
Magnetism  or  Mesmerism,  77,  78, 
80,  83,  107,  113,  114,  124,  125,  165 

Winter,  Dr.,  123 

Witchcraft,  Van  Helmont's  explana- 
tion of,  34 

Witchcraft,  the  New,  270 

Wonibcll,  James,  case  of  amputation 
under  mesmeric  anassthesia, 135-37, 
154 

Woodbury,  Mrs.,  her  immaculate 
conception,  295 


Zoist,   The,  143,    146,   147,   182,   183, 
186 


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